248 PHYSOSTOMI. 



bonne and Montpellier : many likewise in Germany and Holland. In this country 

 the Kennet has long been celebrated for its eels as well as the Isle of Eels, now 

 termed Ely, and other localities, as Cambridgeshire and the Eastern broads. 



The largest supply is obtained from Holland, and Mr. Mayhew (London 

 Labour and London Poor, i, p. 66) has given a good description of the Dutch eel- 

 boats in the Thames. For in the time of Queen Elizabeth a free mooring was 

 given for Dutch schuits in this river when bringing over eels, a privilege that is 

 still made use of. The holds are fitted up with long tanks of muddy water, and the 

 heads of the eels may be seen breathing on the surface, a thick brown bubble rising 

 slowly and floating to the sides. At the stern of one boat was moored a coffin- 

 shaped barge pierced with holes, and hanging in the water were baskets, 

 shaped like olive-jars, to keep the stock of fish both alive and fresh. In the 

 centre of the boat stood the scales, a tall, heavy apparatus, one side fitted up with 

 the conical net-bag to hold the eels, and the other with the weights, and pieces of 

 stone to make up for the extra draught of the water hanging about the fish. The 

 Scotch will scarcely eat them or even capture them for sale. 



" Mr. Gurney informs me that he used to find the sharp-nosed eel at Lowestoft 

 along the coast, sometimes nearly a mile from the harbour's mouth — very healthy 

 but never large; 2 lb.. would be the maximum weight of these salt-water eels " 

 (T. Southwell). Paget has likewise remarked that eels are found in Yarmouth 

 at the harbour's mouth and even at sea. 



It has been observed that an eel will live and grow in any water, however 

 warm, and though it prefers a muddy or boggy bottom, such is not indispensable. 

 It requires no special food, being omnivorous, is an excellent scavenger, besides 

 capturing living prey. It grows rapidly, while the young are easily transported. 

 But it is found undesirable in rivers where gill-nets are much employed, as it eats 

 the captives. 



As food. — Are largely eaten potted, stewed, or in eel-pies ; are rather rich, 

 wholesome and nutritious, except when captured near drains, when they ought to 

 be avoided. "Very seldom eaten in Orkney" (Low). The Jews reject the eel 

 although they are aware that it has scales. Elvers " may be eaten boiled in milk 

 and pressed into a sort of cheese" (Ball). Fancy, as regards their appearance 

 somewhat resembling a snake, causes many to reject these fish as food, although they 

 are otherwise esteemed by the South Britons but loathed by those in the North, 

 while in some parts of Ireland the supposition seems still to hold good that they 

 are the lineal descendants of the serpents on which St. Patrick served a writ of 

 ejectment, depriving them of any local habitation on dry land. A tradition exists 

 in Cambridgeshire that when the priests refused to accede to the Pope's order to 

 put away their wives, the latter, as well as their offspring, were turned into eels, 

 whence originated the name Ely ! Their skins, in the Orkneys, are worn around 

 the ankles as a preservative against cramps. Even the Ancients were super- 

 stitious respecting eels, deeming them to be the embodiment of evil spirits. 



Highly esteemed by the Greeks and Romans, they were rejected by the 

 Egyptians, but enrolled among their numerous gods, and esteemed by most 

 people, except Jews and Scotch. They are always in season, but least in winter 

 and are worst in May. 



Uses. — Their skins, oiled and dried, are used in Tartary as glass. 

 Diseases and causes of destruction. — Their greatest enemies, irrespective of 

 man, are otters, polecats, and rats, both of which attack them in winter when 

 dormant. Herons and swans likewise eat them, as well as pike, salmon, and 

 large trout. A water spaniel has been known to feed greedily on young eels 

 waiting to ascend a pass. But herons have not invariably captured eels with 

 impunity, as it is on record how one pierced through the eye by the bill of its 

 captor, twisted itself round its neck and strangled it during its dying agonies. It 

 is asserted that tar in the water destroys or repels eels. Thus they were formerly 

 abundant in the harbour at Mevagissey, but since boat-building has been much 

 carried on they have disappeared, the water now being constantly polluted with 

 tar. A disastrous epidemic among the eels has been observed this summer (1882) 

 in the Nakskoofjord in Laaland, an island of considerable size in the Baltic, 



