MUR 
by Gronovius and Richter: the firft of whom fays that 
they filh for them in Holland in the North Sea; and the 
laft, that in the fpring they are fond of getting to the fea, 
and that they are taken in plenty in the Baltic, gaining 
a pleafant tafte from the falt-water. During winter they 
hide themfelves in the mud, where they remain in clufters; 
in fpring, they quit the lakes, and leek the rivers. In 
May they are found in Germany in the Oder, the Varthe, 
the Sprey, the Havel, and the Elbe, and in the lakes com¬ 
municating with thofe rivers. The nolle of a mill does 
not frighten them; they follow the fpout of the mill- 
hopper, fo that the millers catch them by placing purfe- 
nets behind the mills. At that time the eel-filhery is 
very conliderable in many places, particularly near the 
mouth of the Schwinemunde in the Baltic, and in the 
Sonnenburg, Limmritz, Krifchetz, and Kuftrin: they 
take fuch quantities in thefe countries, that they cannot 
fell them while frelh, fo that they dry and fmoke the 
greater part; thus they fell them to foreigners, who take 
waggons full of them to Saxony, Silefia, &c. five or fix 
waggons full are fometimes brought into Berlin at a 
time, whence it may be judged of what importance this 
filhery is of to thofe countries; yet, iince banks have 
been conftrufted on the Oder, they do not catch fo many 
as formerly. In Jutland they are very plenty, there 
being a place in that country where they fometimes take 
more than two thoufand at one haul, fome of which 
weigh nine pounds and more. This filh is alfo very 
plentiful in France: in the Garonne, 60,000 have been 
taken in one day with a fingle net. In England they are 
not lefs abundant: a ftory is told of the marquis of 
Rockingham’s producing thirteen tons of eels for one 
large feaft on his being chofen a member of parliament. 
In this country they often grow to a pretty large fize, 
fome weighing feventeen pounds; there is indeed an 
inferior kind in the Thames, and about Oxford, which 
neither attain to the fame fize nor fatnefs ; they are known 
by the largenefs of the head, and the roundnefs of the 
fnout, and have there received the appellation of grigs. 
Near Workum, in Friefeland, they catch fuch quantities 
that veffels are employed to carry them to England, 
“ which they do annually,” fays Bloch, “ to^the amount 
of 1 oo,oool. fterling.” They are found alfo in the Nile. 
The eel attains a large fize in foreign parts : for in- 
ftance, in fome of the lakes near Prenzlow, they are 
cau'ght feveral feet long, and as thick as a man’s arm ; 
In Albany, fome are caught as thick as a man’s thigh. 
On the frontiers of China they grow alfo very large ; 
Dr. Melle, at Peterfburgh, received an eel from China 
which was five feet long and three thick. At Gibraltar, 
they grow four-feet feven inches long, and weigh feven¬ 
teen pounds. In England they fometimes weigh from 
fifteen to twenty pounds; and one was caught on the 
Norfolk coalt which was five feet ten inches long, and 
weighed between fifty and fixty pounds ; another was 
caught in the Solway, near Annan in Scotland, in Oftober 
1816, which was twelve feet long and eighteen inches 
thick. An eel is now (Oft. 23, 1817.) exhibiting at Lin¬ 
coln as a fliow, which is fix feet five inches long, and 
twenty-one inches round, and weighs forty-five pounds; 
it was caught in the river Witham, near Bofton. In 
Italy they lometimes weigh twenty pounds; and Pliny 
fays thofe of the Ganges are fometimes thirty feet long. 
Thefe llatements will be received with grains of allow¬ 
ance ; and we may fay, in general, that the large eels 
aftually caught were probably conger-eels. 
The lkin is fupple and tranfparent: the Tartars on 
the confines of China employ it inftead of glafs for win¬ 
dow-light;.in other places it is cut in llips, and the 
peafants ufe it in making their flails, being ftronger than 
the bell leather. 
The eel is a rapacious and greedy filh ; but its mouth 
is fo fmall, that it can only catch fmall filh ; it will alfo 
eat infefts, worms, and carrion : it is particularly fond of 
ipawn; and follows ikh in fpawning time, and greatly 
M N A. 203 
hinder? the multiplication of other fpecies. It is known 
that they are very tenacious of life, and will live long, 
and may be carried a great way, in a veil'd with water, 
grafs, and rufhes: they will live many days out of the 
water. Mufchenbroek found by experiment that an eel 
kept moving for fome time in a place deprived of air, 
and lived a full hour; another lived two hours in water 
whence the air was drawn out. It will alfo furvive 
blows that would have killed an animal ten times its fize; 
and even after if is cut alunder, the different parts are 
feen to move. It is, however, fo eafily dellroyed by cold, 
that, to avoid it, it beds itfelf deep among the mud; and 
continues, like the ferpent tribe, in a torpid (late during 
winter. Some have been known to take flielter under a 
rick of hay in l'evere weather, and, even there, have all 
perifhed from excels of cold. Though fond of hiding 
themfelves in the mud, they are incapable of living in thick 
turbid water; and hence, when a river is dilturbed by a 
flood, they are frequently fuft’ocated by the impurity of 
the dream. 
The eel is produced from a real egg, like all other filh; 
but this egg is commonly hatched within the body, as in 
the ray, the (hark, fome fpecies of blenny, and fome 
filures ; the female, prefling and rubbing her belly at the 
bottom of the water, fets the young ones at liberty foon 
after they are hatched, and then they are feen wriggling 
about in the mud, which made Arillotle conceive that 
they were produced from flime. Pliny, alfo who refufes 
to eels any didinftion of fex, and who had obferved them 
to rub their bellies againff rocks and flones, lays boldly, 
that eels, by rubbing themfelves againff hard fubftances, 
tear off little parts of their bodies, which afterwards 
become eels : his words are, Anguillce atterunt J'e fcopulis 
ea Jirigmenta vivefcunt, nec alia eft earumprocreatio ; lib. ix. 
cap. 57. 
Some would have it that they are generated by the 
dew in the month of May; and they endeavour to prove 
it by the following experiment: Take two pieces of turf; 
place them together, fo that the two fides covered with 
grafs may come in contaft; cover the whole with grafs, 
and towards night put it into water, fo that the grafs 
may be even with the furface of the water; if a plentiful 
dew falls during the night, young eels will be found in 
the turf in the morning. Abfurd as this ftatement is, 
yet Leeuwenhoek has thought it worthy at leaft of ex¬ 
amination and refutation ; and he explains the phenome¬ 
non as follow's: The dew feldom falls but in calm ffill 
weather; thefe filh generally remain at the bottom of the 
water ; but in fine mild weather, the young in particular 
rife to the furface, which is the warmeff; now, as the 
young eels find nourifliment alfo among the turf, it is 
eafily accounted for why they remain there. Van Hel- 
mont, who attributes fo much efficacy to the May-dew, 
thinks it not however fufficient to produce eels, but adds 
honey thereto. Another writer will have eels to be pro¬ 
duced from the corrupted ikins of other eels thrown into 
the water; and Leeuwenhoek has taken the unneceflary 
pains to refute this opinion alfo. Schwenckfeld, a phy- 
fician at Breflau, thought he difcovered young eels in the 
gills of the bley, a kind of carp; in which Ray has fol¬ 
lowed him exaftly. Schonevelt, a phyfician at Keil, 
derives their generation from under the lkin of the fmelt, 
the cod, and other filh. Some animalcules ffiaped like 
eels have certainly deceived thefe authors. The firft 
takes leeches for young eels; for thefe animals lie in the 
gills and mouths of many fpecies of river-fiih ; the fecond 
miftook for eels the Gordius harengus, a kind of worm 
which is often found about fea-filh. 
Willughby freely confefled that the generation of eels 
was unknown to him. Dr. Elmer infiffs that an eel ex¬ 
cludes feveral young enclofed in little meihbranes of 
bladders; Charleton lays the lame, and profdfes to have 
feen eleven young in the matrix of an eel. Fahlberg, in 
February 1750, faw a young one coming out at the navel 
of an eel s this he opened, and found in the matrix forty 
others* 
