270 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



are placed upright, and are about a yard high and two feet and a half wide: on 

 one side, near the bottom, is an entrance for the fishes, made of twigs, and some- 

 times of yarn, made into a net. Opposite to this entrance, on the other side of the 

 weel, looking towards the lower part of the river, is another entrance like the first., 

 and leading to a box of boards about four feet long, two deep, and two broad. 

 Near each of the weels is a hedge leading obliquely to the long hedge, and making 

 an acute angle with it. This latter hedge is made in order to lead the fish into 

 the trap, and it is placed on that end of the long hedge which looks towards the 

 upper part of the river; now when the tide comes up the river, the fish, and chiefly 

 the eels, go up with it along the river-side ; when the water begins to ebb, the fish 

 likewise go down the river, and meeting with the hedges they swim along them, 

 till they come through the weels into the boxes of boards, at the top of which there 

 is a hole with a cover, through which the fish can be taken out. This apparatus 

 is made chiefly for the eels. In some places hereabouts they place nets instead of 

 the hedges of twigs." The following passage occurs also in the same work. " They 

 catch eels and porpesses at Quebec at the end of September and during the whole 

 month of October. The eels come up the river at that time, and are followed by 

 the porpesses which feed upon them." (Pink. Coll., xiii., pp. 632 — 672.) 



As the Common eel thrives and multiplies in ponds from whence it cannot 

 migrate to the sea, it becomes a matter of interest to ascertain whether there be 

 any specific distinction between the resident and migratory kinds, and the fact that 

 the eel exists in North America, in those parts only to which it has access from 

 tidal waters, is important in such an inquiry. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of the Beaked eel of Lake Cayuga, quoted from M. Le Sueur. 



" Snout elongated, pointed, and straight ; eyes large and situated very near the angle of 

 the mouth ; body tumid in the centre, narrowed to a point at both extremities : upper parts 

 varied with grey and olive, sometimes of a slate-blue : lower parts white : dorsal and anal fins 

 reddish, which colour deepens as it approaches the tail ; pectoral fins small, acute, and bluish. 

 Length from eighteen to twenty-four inches." 



There is little doubt of the North American coasts being frequented by some of 

 the numerous species of murcena (Thunb.). Murcena moringa of Cuvier is figured 

 in Catesby, pi. 21, from a Bahama specimen, and Dr. Mitchill mentions murcena 

 meleagris among the New York fish. The black and green muray of Catesby, 

 pi. 20, is considered by Pennant to be the common murcena helena of Linnaeus. 



