THE COXGER EEL. 
x6i 
Weighing upwards of an hundred pounds. A fifhery of 
mongers eilablifned at Mount's Bay, in Cornwall, forms a 
Very confiderable article of commerce. They are an- 
nually exported to Spain and Portugal in a dried (late, 
v 'here they are grinded down iuto a kind of powder, and 
are ufed in enriching their foups *. 
They are caught by a fort of line called a bulter, bait- 
e d with pilchards ; when taken, they are flit up, that a 
Part of the fat may exude from them before they are 
halted, and fit for life ; and fo confiderable is the quantity 
°f juice that thus efcapes, that a fiih of a hundred weight 
Vuii not dry to above twenty-five poupds. M. Pennant 
fiippofes that a fifhery of congers might be eftab'iihed 
Vdth advantage in the Hebrides , could the averfion of the 
Natives to this tribe be overcome. 
This fpecies is diftinguiihed by the fame voracity as 
foe xormer ; it devours other filh, crabs, and even carca- 
fe s. The mode of its generation is probably the fame 
^tth the common eels ; but, however this be, it is eer- 
ily prolific, for the number of its young that annual- 
ly afcends the Severn is prodigious 5 they are there called 
e lvers, and during the month of April they fwarm in fuch 
^°al s , that they are thrown out upon the ill ore with fmall 
e . Ves m ade of hair, andfixcd to the end of a pole ; a man 
m this manner take out as many at one tide, as will fill 
a bufliel f. 
Th 
e co 'iger differs from the common eel, in having 
ver CyeS 1ar S er !n proportion ; the irides of a bright fil- 
f Co * our > the lateral line marked with a row of fmall 
5 the edSeS ° f the dorfal and anaI black, and in 
ln S a greater number of bones. 
t Vide C elher, apnd Will. 
* Er: ‘. Zool. 
V °fo III. 
