a 6c 
SHN0U3 FISHES. 
There are feveral varieties of the common eel, probably 
occafioned by the different food on which they are fupp ort 
ed. Thefe animals are all extremely voracious ; they 
devour carrion or any putrid fubffance that falls in the 
way * : They are capable of fubfifting equally in fr‘ & 
water, or in fait, and thrive either ita a ft ream or in a 
pond, and even in wells f ; but though a fi(h almoft uni- 
verfal, naturalifts feem agreed, that there are none in the 
Danube, nor in any of thofe ftreams which flow into it i 
while they are found in all the branches of the Rhine %■ 
This fpecies often grows to a pretty large fize, fo' nL 
weighing feventeeh pounds ; there is indeed an ini e 
rior kind in the Thames, and about Oxford, which nei- 
ther attain to the fame fize nor fatnefs ; they are know' 1 
by the largenefs of the head, and the roundnefs pf tb e 
.fnout, and have there received the appellation of grig s ' 
Every fpecies of the eel was deemed among the Roffia1t ’ 
contemptible food, according to Juvenal, from their fo 
feeding, and their refembjance to a fnake. 
Vhe Conger Eel L 
This often grows to an enormous fize ; fome are tak^ 
eighteen inches in circumference, and ten feet 
* Brit. Zool. t Rond - ub! fu P ra> * AiberWt. 
§ Mutaena Conger, Lin. Syft. Le Congre, Belon. 
