THE FAMILY OF EELS. 
317 
of the boundaries w'ithiti which they are confined, and then 
to apply their handlike tail so as to grasp the edge, and by 
a convoluted contraction or retraction of the muscles to lift 
the body over. 
There are times also when this wandering propensity of the 
Eel appears to be brought into action by a craving for some 
unusual kind of food, or it may be, even for the mere love 
of adventure. An Eel has been taken on the land by means 
of a hook baited with a worm, and set to catch a bird. It 
is said to have been known to devour newly-sown peas in a 
garden; and I have been credibly assured that one was found 
in a field of turnips at the distance of a quarter of a mile 
from a river; all Avhich circumstances, with other direct proofs, 
afford evidence that these fish are able to live for a long time 
out of the water; which circumstance is indeed explained by 
the fact that their gills are closely shut up from the drying 
influence of air, and that from being smeared over with glutinous 
moisture, the skin is always preserved from becoming dry, 
which process of drying is the cause of death in many species 
of marine animals. 
It has been disputed whether the growth of Eels is speedy 
or exceedingly slow; and Lacepede had formed the opinion of 
its being so greatly delayed, that many years must pass before 
they can reach the size in which they arc usually found; but 
to compensate for this, he supposed their natural length of life 
to be lengthened to almost a hundred years. And in support 
of these suppositions he adduces the authority of a friend who 
placed in a tank sixty of these fish of very small size; where 
after nine years they had only increased from the length of 
nineteen centimetres to twenty-six; but this writer takes no 
note of the food supplied, nor does he appear to be aware 
of the effect of limited confinement on the growth of fishes; 
and his conclusion is disproved by an experiment of his 
countryman M. Coste, who placed young Eels in a reservoir, 
with a sufficient supply of food, and in four or five years they 
had attained the weight of from four^to six pounds. 
Mr. Daniel produces an authentic instance of an Eel which 
lived in a well for at least upwards of thirty-one years; but 
we cannot venture to admit his sujiposition that in Lough 
Neagh they have grown in four months from the size ol small 
