268 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



The Common eel of Europe belongs to the True eels, or that division of Thun- 

 berg's genus anguilla, in which the commencement of the dorsal is pretty far 

 behind the pectorals, and to a minor group in which the upper jaw is shorter than 

 the under one. The French fishermen recognise in the Common eel of ichthyo- 

 logical writers (murcena anguilla, Linn.) four different kinds or, as they say, 

 species, viz., Tanguille verniaucv, which is the most common ; the long-beaked eel, 

 which has a more compressed and pointed snout ; the flat-beaked eel, or grig of 

 the English, in which the snout is flatter and more obtuse and the eye smaller ; and 

 Tanguille pimperneaux, or glut-eel, which has a shorter snout and larger eyes than 

 the others (JRegne Animal). — The Common eel is mentioned by Pennant, Schoepf, 

 Mitchill, Smith, and many other writers and travellers, as existing in America, 

 and abounding especially in the St. Lawrence, but like many other North Ameri- 

 can fishes, supposed to be identical with the European ones of the same name, the 

 species does not appear to have been determined by an actual comparison of speci- 

 mens, nor have I discovered in the accounts of American fish, any notice of the 

 four kinds or species we have just alluded to. M. Le Sueur describes five species 

 which inhabit the waters of Massachusetts and New York, under the names of 

 murcena rostrata, Bostoniensis, serpentina, argentea, and macrocephala, all of 

 them, he believes, previously unknown to naturalists *. His murcena rostrata 

 was found in lakes Cayuga and Seneka, whose waters fall into the St. Lawrence ; 

 but whether it be the species which forms the object of the extensive eel-fisheries 

 on this river, of which we shall shortly give an account, we have no means of deter- 

 mining. As he mentions that its eyes are large, it is not likely to be the long- 

 beaked eel of the Regne Animal. De Witt Clinton states that the Common eel 

 has often been observed endeavouring in vain to surmount the falls of Niagara, by 

 winding its way upwards among the moist and slippery rocks, and that it is alto- 

 gether unknown in the superior waters of the St. Lawrence f. Mr. Todd was, 

 however, informed that an Indian speared an eel, three feet long and five or six 

 inches in circumference, at the mouth of the Nattawasaga, which flows into Lake 

 Huron. He had an opportunity, shortly after it was killed, of conversing with 

 several Canadians who saw it, and who assured him that it was actually an eel. 

 The lamprey being well known, both to the Indians and Canadians, could not have 

 been mistaken by either of them for an eel. The surprise which the capture of 



* Dr. Mitchill mentions anguilla vulgaris, conger and oceanica, as New York fish, the latter being, he supposes, described 

 only by himself. 



+ He also informs us th;it eels were unknown in the Passaic above the great falls until a canal was cut at Paterson, 

 since which time they have become plentiful in the upper branches of that river. Phil. Tr., New York, i., p. 148. 



