308 
THE FAMILY OF EELS. 
able to find them there; and Spallanzani, led by the same 
opinion, and to account for his own want of success in this 
search, explained it by saying that the parents went down to 
the sea to produce their young; and consequently were then 
beyond his reach. This remark is indeed to a large extent 
true, although not in the way in which he understood it; but 
whether there exists some difference in this respect in what are 
now recognised as different species, has not yet been inquired 
into. 
As regards the difference of species among Eels, we have 
seen that Aristotle had no doubt, and in this he is followed 
by Jonston; but while naturalists of a later date were content 
to bury themselves in the obscurity of the ancients, fishermen 
were persuaded of the existence of several kinds; thus antici- 
pating the conclusion of recent naturalists, who now describe 
three which have been discovered in our own country, and of 
which we have some supposition as regards a fourth; although 
in respect of the exact nature of one of them, some hesitation 
may still remain. Of the distinguishing habits of each of these 
species there is little known with certainty; for which reason it 
has been judged best to describe in the first place what appears 
to be common to all of them, and to reserve such particulars 
as are peculiar to each until we come to the description of the 
individual species. 
^Tith some reserve as regards the several sorts we have no 
knowledge of any fishes that are so widely distributed over the 
world as Eels. Mr. Lowe speaks of them as being the only 
native fresh-water fish of Madeira; where they abound in 
torrents up to the height of about five hundred feet above the 
sea; and Fabricius mentions them among the fishes of Greenland. 
They are common in every rivulet in the British Islands, and 
over the continent of Europe; and especially abundant in the 
countries bounding the north and east of the Mediterranean. 
We hear of them also in Japan and portions of China, with 
other (temperate) portions of Asia; but Philip Von Strahlenberg, 
in his “Travels in Siberia,” informs us that they are not found 
in the rivers of that country. It has been commonly believed 
that no Eels ai e met with in the Danube ; but the contrary 
is affirmed by Dr. Reisinger, in his “Ichthyology of Hungary,” 
who says he has known them there, although not in abundance. 
