1028 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
is a proverbial expression; and this quality is of great- 
service to the fish in every strait. Nor does the Eel forget 
to take advantage thereof, but slips through the tiniest 
openings. In order to widen the aperture, when this 
is too small to afford a passage for its head, it has re- 
course to the same method as that employed by a 
Fierasfer in gaining entrance to the body of an Holo- 
t-huria (see above, p. 598, fig. 143). It first inserts the 
end of the tail. From a live-well or other receptacle, 
left without a lid, the Eel has often escaped tail first, 
lifting itself over the edge with this part of the body. 
The toughness of its skin is equalled by the obstinacy 
with which it keeps stationary in the same spot, unless 
impelled by hunger, the sexual instinct, or fear. It lies 
motionless among the dense water-plants of the lakes 
or river-banks, or among tufts of weed in the sea; hides 
under stones and in the crevices between them, or lies 
in the tunnel which it has burrowed in the mud or 
loose sand, its head and tail projecting at either end. 
Its caution is extremely great, and it avoids every sus- 
picious object. An old tradition is current among the 
fishermen that if, on its migration in a river, the Eel 
comes to the unbarked trunk of a birch-tree placed 
across the channel, it halts; and by laying down such 
obstacles they force it to take the path leading into 
Eel-weirs or similar contrivances. Linnaeus makes re- 
ference to this in his “coercetur t-runco albo Betuhe.” 
To changes in the weather it is very sensitive, and 
becomes greatly distressed and very restless in a thun- 
derstorm, quitting its retreat, and falling an easy victim 
to the seine. In winter it burrows to a depth of se- 
veral feet in the mud, and lies torpid, often in large 
companies, to escape the cold. But it may be frozen, 
though not too hard, and again thawed to life. Its tena- 
city of life is known to most by experience. Though 
skinned and chopped to pieces, it still moves. Its suf- 
ferings, before death finally releases it, must awake the 
pity of all. Ghastly is the description given by Jacoby" 
of the Eel-roasting carried on by the Italians at Co- 
macchio. “A large establishment for the roasting of 
Eels is a sight during working-hours that none will 
forget. You see before you a living picture of hell, 
where the damned suffer all the torments that the pious 
imagination of mediaeval painters could conceive; and 
you are surprised at every moment by the perfect re- 
semblance to the work of their pencils. In the back- 
ground a huge door opens now and then, to let in the 
full flood of daylight. Through the door and over the 
murky water of the canal a rower guides his broad boat, 
mouthing execrations. He brings with him the souls of 
the damned, the Eels, which lie in writhing heaps at 
the bottom of the boat. The victims are now scooped 
up with nets and thrown into tubs. In front of each 
tub sits a fiend, armed with a sharp hatchet. He chops 
into three or four pieces the wriggling bodies of the 
large Eels, which vainly strive to escape. The small 
Eels are cast as they are, together with these pieces, 
into other tubs. The work is now taken up by other 
hands, with another diabolical duty to perform, that of 
spitting on huge skewers, up to two yards long, the 
pieces and the live Eels in coils, one after another. The 
spits, loaded with the still writhing pieces and the 
wriggling small Eels, are now taken to the fire. Eight 
or nine large furnaces, heated with great blocks of wood, 
spread a violent heat over a great portion of the dusky 
room. In each furnace, before and in the fire, hang 
seven or eight of these loaded spits. They are kept 
turning by women, who in face, age, and figure har- 
monize well with their infernal surroundings. Each 
gang of workers, men and women, chants its song, the 
flames roar, the smell of burning fat rises from the 
victims, and the picture of hell is almost complete.” 
Man is here no more merciful than the beasts, which 
in the struggle for existence reck little of each other’s 
sufferings. A different proof of the Eel’s endurance was 
afforded us by the dissection of a porpoise that had 
been found dead in the Catt-egat off the coast of Bo- 
huslan on the 29th of April, 1878. In the abdominal 
cavity lay a dead Eel 465 mm. long. It had evidently 
been swallowed alive by the porpoise, but had retained 
strength and sense enough to gnaw its way through 
the wall of one of its devourer’s stomachs into the ab- 
dominal cavity, thus inflicting death on the porpoise, 
though itself unable to escape from its prison 6 . In 
spite of these powers of endurance it is easy enough 
to make a wriggling Eel lie still. Only cut a slit 
across the hind part of the tail; and so great is the 
sensitiveness of this part that the Eel becomes motion- 
less, probably with pain. 
The Eel feeds principally by night, the time when 
it is most active in every way. Even in the daytime 
it may be enticed with a tempting bait, but, as a 
a Der Fisclifang in der Lagune von Comacchio nebat einer Darstellung der Aalfrage, Berlin 1880, p. 83. 
b Cf. above, p. 621, Darwin’s anecdote of a Diodon. 
