THE EEL 



145 



the egress of the young ones. But, in order that the eggs may- 

 be capable of being hatched, there must be some intercourse 

 with the male fish. This takes place, it ia oonjeotuied, in the 

 same manner as among the snake tribe. The eggs are, of course, 

 more or less numerous in dififerent fish. It sometimes happens 

 that the female eels disembarrass themselves of their eggs 

 before they are hatched ; but this must occur very seldom, 

 because it has never yet been clearly ascertained where, in such 

 cases, the eels deposit them." 



Now this, which is an abridgment of the more 

 elaborate account of a French author, seems to he a 

 plain and rational account of the matter, and is, in all 

 probability, not far from the truth. ^ 



Eels iacrease in numbers most prodigiously; they 

 wUl also reach a very large size. In Italy — a magnifi- 

 cent country for the angler — they are taken, it is said, 

 of the weight of twenty pounds. In Albania, they are 

 stated to be occasionally as thick as a man's thigh ; and 

 some writers have affirmed that in Prussia they have 

 been sometimes caught ten or twelve feet in length. 

 We have ourselves often seen them in France of five 

 and six pounds. 



The eel is a fish of very slow growth; but, as 

 a set-off against this, he seems to be endowed 

 with the gift of very long life. Writers on fishing 

 commonly limit him to a period of five or six 

 years; but a French author, who speaks with the 

 greatest confidence on the sulaject, says, "Experience 

 has proved that the eel will live for a century. 

 How otherwise can the prodigious increase of these 

 animals be explained, siuce it can be demonstrated 

 that the females do not breed before they are 

 twelve years old? The eel increases untU his ninety- 

 fourth year. Each female, therefore, can produce 

 during a period of eighty-two years; and this satis- 

 factorily accounts for the enormous quantity of eels 



' The late Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Kay, read a paper to a 

 scientific society not long ago on this subject. He had!^ noticed 

 little eels in the thatch of a cottage, and thence inferred that the 

 spawn had been deposited on the reeds before they had been cut, 

 and vivified into life by the sun's rays. 



