THE FAMILY OF EELS. 
309 
but sometimes of the weight of twenty pounds. In Hungary 
they are found in large numbers in lakes and ponds. 
Yet although inhabiting countries distinguished by such a 
variety of climate, these fish are known to be deeply sensible 
of changes of the season, and more especially when these changes 
are sudden. Severe cold is in a high degree irksome and 
injurious, to escape from which it is a usual resource to bury 
themselves in the sand or soil at the bottom of the river, or 
to creep into the recesses of the bank, where, in the accustomed 
hole, they have been careful to know there is more than one 
safe outlet for escape in case of danger; and here, for the sake 
of warmth, large numbers have been known to assemble together; 
as has been found the case also when buried in the mud at 
the bottom. In spite of this, however, Spallanzani records that 
in a cold winter so many Eels were killed in the marshes of 
Coramachio near Venice, as weighed something more than six 
thousand six hundred pounds. But there is reason to believe 
that when even severe cold is gradual in its approach, it is a 
state of torpidity, and not death, that is produced. In the 
“Annual Kegister” for 1778, p. 99, Dr. King is quoted as 
saying, on the authority of the Kussian Consul, that in Russia 
Eels are designedly exposed to the frost in order that they may 
be carried safely to a distance. They are then packed in straw, 
and after four days, when thrown into cold water, they become 
perfectly recovered. Other examples of similar facts might be 
produced; and it seems probable that in the sea they find a 
higher amount of protection and comfort than anywhere in 
fresh water; and in the milder climate of Cornwall, when the 
ebbing tide had left a sheet of ice on the shore, large Eels, 
which had been taken from holes in a pier left almost dry, 
were found still in possession of their usual activity; but the 
philosoidiical experiments of John Hunter have placed their 
history in this respect in an intelligible and satisfactory light. 
With a thermometer formed for the purpose he found the heat 
of the stomach in an Eel to be 37°; and then, having placed 
the fish in a cold mixture, which at first he ascertained to be 
at 10°, but which afterwards was reduced to a still colder 
temperature, the heat of the stomach was brought down to 
31°, and the creature appeared to be dead; and yet on the 
following day it had become restored to life and activity. 
