Elvers. 
116 CON G E R. Clafs IV. 
3. The irides of a bright filvery color. 4. The 
lower jaw is rather fhorter than the upper. 5. 
The fide line is broad, whitifh, and marked with 
a rew of {mall fpots; Mr. Ray fays a double row, 
but we did not obferve it in the fifh we examined. 
6. The edges of the dorfal and anal fins are black. 
7. They have more bones than the common eel, 
efpecially along the back quite to the head. 8. They 
grow to a much larger fize. 
As to the diftin¢étion that Mr. Ray, and other 
writers, make of the {mall beards at the end of the 
nofe, we think it not to be depended on, being 
fometimes found in both kinds, and fometimes en- 
tirely wanting. 
We believe they generate like the frefh-water 
fpecies: innumerable quantities, of what are fup- 
pofed to be their fry, come up the Severn about 
the month of April, preceding the Shads, which it 
is conjectured migrate into that river to feed on 
them: they are called E/vers. They quite fwarm 
during their feafon, and are taken in a kind of fieve 
made of hair-cloth, fixed to along pole; the fifh- | 
erman ftanding on the edge of the water during the 
tide, puts in his net as far as he can reach, and draw- 
ing it out again takes multitudes at every fweep, 
and will take as many during one tide as will fill a 
bufhel. They are dreffed, and reckoned very deli- 
cate. 
Congers are extremely voracious, preying on other 
fifh, and on crabs at the time they have loft their 
fhell, and are in a foft ftate. They and eels in ge- 
neral are alfe particularly fond of carcafles of any 
kind, 
