306 Hon. H. T. Liddell's Observations on the 



envelops the generation and production of these amphibia (as they may be 

 termed) has never been cleared up, and we are yet in ignorance from 

 whence the fresh-water eel, the commonest of our river fish, receives its 

 origin. 



Sir Humphry Davy surmises that the sea conger is the parent of all 

 fresh water eels, which do not appear to be ripe for generation as long as 

 they continue inhabitants of the rivers or lakes ; but Mr. Jesse, Deputy 

 Surveyor of the King's Parks, an ingenious and observant gentleman, in 

 his publication entitled " Gleanings of Natural History," states, " that an 

 amazing number of eels are bred in the two large ponds in Richmond Park, 

 which is sufficiently evident from the very great quantity of young ones 

 which migrate from those ponds every year. The late respectable head- 

 keeper of that park assured me that, at nearly the same day in the month 

 of May, vast numbers of young eels, about two inches in length, contrived 

 to get through the pen-stock of the upper pond, and then through the 

 channel which led into the lower pond, from whence they got through 

 another pen-stock into a water-course, which led them eventually into the 

 River Thames. They migrated in one connected shoal, and in such pro- 

 digious numbers that no guess could be given as to their probable amount." 

 Mr. Jesse then informs his readers that an annual migration of young eels 

 takes place regularly in the Thames, and for many years, it was remarked, 

 the 10th of May was the day called by the fishermen eel fair; and in 

 pages 33 and 34 he gives the most authentic account I have ever met with 

 of young eels being found in the gut of the parent. How they are gene- 

 rated there is still unknown, and Mr. Jesse offers no explanation.* 



Unless the fact of the migration of young eels from a pond to a river can 

 be explained in some mode not obvious at first sight, such a fact is con- 

 clusive against Sir H. Davy's theory of the conger being the parent of river 

 eels, but it will be observed that Mr. Jesse does not give this fact upon his 

 own observation, and there may be some error. The fact of the migration 

 of young eels from the sea is indisputable in all rivers where that fish is 

 found, and there cannot be a doubt that by far the greatest number of fresh 

 water eels must be generated and produced near the mouths of rivers. 



* This is an error, and acknowledged as such by Mr. Jesse in his second series of 

 The Gleanings." 



