THE FAMILY OF EELS. 
315 
wisdom to provide haybands, which are hung over the rochy 
parts of rivers to help the Eels in overcoming the obstructions 
which lie in their wayj and Mr. Daniel, in his Supplement to 
Rural Sports, further says that in the same country a kind of 
fishery is employed by means of ropes of straw laid across the 
stream, into which these Eels entangle themselves, and thus 
are drawn on shore. Within my own observation, when these 
young Eels have quitted the water, and are come to a dry 
spot, they have always turned away in search of moisture, 
which they follow; and so when a season is dripping with wet, 
they sometimes wander into extraordinary situations. Thus, 
when a leaden pipe which conveyed water from the roof of a 
house to a cistern, that was fifteen feet above the ground, 
had become obstructed, and in consequence a portion of it was 
cut off, the pressure of the water in the upper part was seen 
to thrust out, head foremost, three Eels, each twenty-two Inches 
in length, and no two of which were able to pass each other 
in the tube. Instances of a similar kind are mentioned by Mr. 
Thompson, in his ‘Natural History of Ireland. The fate of 
these young Eels for the most part appears uncertain; but the 
numbers which again pass downward are seen to he con- 
siderably less than can be accounted for without supposing 
that they meet with many devourers; among which man may 
be the least formidable, although in some places these little 
fish are sought after, and are formed into cakes to be fried as 
food. On one occasion there were for sale in the market at 
Exeter two cartloads of them, so small as not to exceed the 
size of a stocking-needle, and each load weighing four hundred- 
weight. These were already prepared for the table, and were 
dispensed to customers at fourpence the pound. 
Among these early migrating young Eels there are occasionally 
found examples which are distinguished by remarkable trans- 
parency, so that the internal organs^ with the action of the 
heart and blood-vessels, can he easily traced. These are popularly 
termed Elvers, although this name is sometimes applied indis- 
criminately to all young Eels, but I have not been able to 
decide that this transparency is a character of any one of the 
species of this family as distinguished from the others I have 
not known them to form one of the company of migrating 
young black ones high in the freshwater, except in the Fowey 
