316 
THE FAMILY OF EELS. 
river, where they kept together ; but they have been met with 
as well in January as in June; and after a confinement of a 
few weeks in a tank there has not been an ajjproach to a 
change in the appearance. In one instance a sketch shewed 
the snout remarkably protruded and sharp, and in another 
decidedly blunt. 
But in addition to this early and regular tendency to 
migration, these fish are also occasionally disposed to a casual 
wandering; which is sometimes caused by the wish to escape 
from the confined limits of a pool, to which a vagrant pro- 
pensity has carried them, or in which they have been placed; 
and where the water has become muddled or is nauseous. 
Thus an Eel of considerable size was placed in a muddy pool 
in a dry season; and soon afterwards, having examined the 
border in aU dkections, it left the water and passed over the 
dry ground to a neighbouring river. When also, in the course 
of examination into the structure and habits of these fish, 
examples were placed in vessels of pure water, which was kept 
a few inches below the brim, it was observed in every case 
that they soon made their escape, which was always effected 
in the night. In some instances these runaways were discovered 
in the street, as they were on their way to the river, and 
brought back; but they remained no longer than until the 
return of darkness; and these escapes were through passages 
not easily perceived, or to be guarded. 
The manner in which these fish manage to pass over the 
edge of the vessel in which they have been confined, is not 
less characteristic than is the structure and facility of action 
of the organ by which it is accomplished, in which respect, 
as we shall see, they much resemble the Conger. Of the 
huger number of vertebrse with which they are furnished, 
amounting, according to Lacepede, to a hundi-ed and sixteen, 
those nearest the tail are so formed as to allow of great flexibility; 
by which, as may be familiarly noticed, these little creatures,’ 
v/hen meddled with, are in the habit of tying this extremity 
into a knot; but the sensibility of the part in feeling, and 
tliat of a peculiar kind, is also great; and it is supported by 
a special organization of which by and by there will be given 
a more particular description. It is by this combination of 
structure that these fish are able, first, to ascertain the natui-e 
