172 Life and Immortality. 
COMMON AMERICAN EEL. 
How It Seeks New Feeding-Grounds, 
Fish, as a rule, do not live more than a few minutes out of 
the water. An Eel, however, will remain alive for many 
hours, and even days, in atmospheric air, provided it is laid 
in a damp place. Now, if one be carefully watched when 
placed upon dry land, it will be observed to pout out the 
cheeks on both sides of its face. Underneath this puffed- 
out skin will be found the gills, and the skin which covers 
them will be seen to be so arranged as to form a closed sac, 
which the Eel fills with water, and so keeps the gill-fibres 
moist. This wonderful contrivance enables the Eel to come 
out of the water, and to travel, so to speak, by land. Thus 
Fels are often found in outlying ponds of human construc- 
tion, where they were never placed by the hand of man. 
Finding old quarters uncomfortable, they take in a good 
supply of water, and exchange them for the better, not by 
repeated leaps towards the water, as some fish are known to 
do, but by a smooth, uniform snake-like progression. 
That some fishes should leave the water and travel over- 
land is, perhaps, not more remarkable than that some birds, 
the ouzel for example, should leave their natural element and 
fly into and under the water. Whoever knows the hidden 
