286 MUR.ENID.E. 



seen lying off Billingsgate ; the others go to Holland for 

 fresh supplies, each bringing a cargo of 15,000 to 20,000 

 pounds' weight of live Eels, for which the Dutch merchant 

 pays a duty of 18/. per cargo for his permission to sell. 

 Eels and Salmon are the only fish sold by the pound weight 

 in the London market. 



Eels are not only numerous, but they are also in great 

 request, in many other countries. Ellis, in his Polynesian 

 Researches, vol. ii. page 286, says : " In Otaheite, Eels are 

 great favourites, and are tamed and fed until they attain an 

 enormous size. These pets are kept in large holes, two or 

 three feet deep, partially filled with water. On the sides of 

 these pits they generally remained, excepting when called 

 by the person who fed them. I have been several times with 

 the young chief, when he has sat down by the side of the 

 hole, and, by giving a shrill sort of whistle, has brought out 

 an enormous Eel, which has moved about the surface of the 

 water, and eaten with confidence out of its master's hand." 



" Most of the writers on the habits of the Eel have de- 

 scribed them as making two migrations in each year : one in 

 the autumn to the sea ; the other in spring, or at the begin- 

 ning of summer, from the sea. The autumn migration is 

 performed by adult Eels, and is believed to be for the pur- 

 pose of depositing their spawn ; it is also said that these 

 parent fish never return up the rivers. The spring migration 

 is commonly supposed to be confined to very small Eels, 

 not more than three inches in length, and in reference to the 

 fry alone, it is too well known, and too often recorded, to be 

 matter of doubt. The passage of countless hundreds of 

 young Eels has been seen and described as occurring in the 

 Thames,* the Severn, the Parrett, the Dee, and the Ban. 



* See an excellent account by Dr. William Roots, of Kingston, published in 

 the second series of Gleanings in Natural History, by Edward Jesse, Esq. 

 p. 50. 



