TION. 



Class IV. COMMON EEL. 193 



cannot but consider it as a further proof of 

 a partial agreement in the nature of the two 

 genera. 



The antients adopted a most wild opinion Genera- 

 about the generation of these fish, believing 

 them to be either created from the mud, or that 

 the scrapings of their bodies, which they left on 

 the stones, were animated and became young 

 eels. Some moderns gave into these opinions, 

 and into others that were equally extravagant. 

 They could not account for the appearance of 

 these fishes in ponds that never were stocked 

 with them, and which were even so remote as to 

 make their being met with in such places, a 

 phenomenon that they could not solve. But 

 there is much reason to believe, that many 

 waters are supplied with these fishes by the 

 aquatic fowl of prey, in the same manner as 

 vegetation is spread by many of the land birds, 

 either by being dropped as they carry them to 

 feed their young, or by passing quick through 

 their bodies, as is the case with herons ; and 

 such may be the occasion of the appearance of 

 these fishes in places where they were never 

 seen before. As to their immediate generation, 

 it has been sufficiently proved to be effected in Vivipa- 

 the ordinary course of nature, and that they are 

 viviparous. 



vol. in. o 



ROUS. 



