204 M U R 
others, which he put into water; and they moved for 
about an hour like other eels. Birckholtz informs us, 
that the old experienced fifhermen would fqueeze live 
eels out of the bodies of the full-grown ones; and that 
he himfelf had feen young ones in the bodies of the fame 
fifh afterwards. Bloch had been told alfo, by old fifher- 
men of Pruflia and Germany, that, by fqueezing an eel 
at that feafon, (June and July,) the young would come 
out in fbape of lerpents, very fmall and extremely thin; 
and that they have often obferved thefe young eels when 
their boats had been fo full that the eels prelfed much 
againff each other. This is the true mode of production. 
Gefner firll afferted that the eel is viviparous; and he 
refls on the tellimony of two experienced fifhermen, who 
law a number of little eels, three inches in length, come 
out of a large one. Muller, a very celebrated naturaliff of 
Copenhagen, fays that he found eggs in four eels; the 
ovaries were an inch long, and filled with eggs of different 
fizes, lying near the air-bladder and kidneys. The milt, 
or impregnating liquor, has been difcovered alfo. 
But the very recent information and experiments de¬ 
tailed by Cepede in his Hifiory of Fillies, leave no room 
to doubt but the eel is produced from an egg like other 
fifh, but this egg is fecundated within the body of the 
mother; fo that there mull be a real coupling, as in the 
ferpent tribe, and the rays, lharks, See. The eggs of the 
cel are much larger, in proportion, than in thofe fillies 
•which exclude them unhatched, and much few'er in num¬ 
ber. “ The eel,” fays Cepede, “ begins to produce from 
the twelfth year, and enjoys at leaft eighty-tw'O years of 
fecundity, for Ihe has not done growing till her ninety- 
fourth year or thereabouts. This accounts for the vaff 
multiplication of eels, confidering the fmall number 
which can be produced by a female each year.” Some 
authors allow the eel to live but twelve or fifteen years 
at moll:; but the above remarks are founded upon the 
late experiments and calculations of Spallanzani relative 
to their growth in a given time. Sometimes a part of the 
eggs are voided before they are hatched, as happens to 
the other viviparous fillies. 
There are various ways of catching eels, with nets, 
ground-lines, balkets, &c. the fmall ones may be taken 
with a hook and line; they will bite greedily at a gud¬ 
geon, though a rud or many other baits will do almoff as 
well. If you lay baits for them at night, they mull be 
drawn very early in the morning, as otherwife the eels in 
their llruggles often bre^k the lines and efcape. In 
winter they may be drawn out from under the ice with a 
forked ftick ; and, as they commonly lie in clullers in the 
mud, there are taken fometimes from 150 to 200 in a hole 
of two feet fquare. The moll favourable time to catch 
eels is in a dark night in warm weather. The eel is deli¬ 
cate food ; and, being generally elleemed, is worth the 
trouble of breeding: for this purpofe a large pond is 
neceffary, with a bottom of fand or marl, and furnilhed 
alfo with mud or dime for their winter retreat. If kept 
in filh-ponds for amufement, Ariftotle fays, the ponds 
Ihould be fo chofen or placed as to communicate with a 
flream of frefli water. According to Pliny, the eel may 
be fo tamed as to come and eat out of your hand. 
The following defeription of the manners and habits 
of the common domeltic eel are from Bingley’s Animal 
Biography, a moll ufe-ful arid entertaining work. 
The ufual haunts of eels are Hill or tranquil waters, 
where the bottom is muddy, or where there are roots or 
Humps of trees, rocks or Hones, under which they are 
iheltered from their foes, and where they can lie in 
fecurity and ambulh in wait for their prey. They feed 
with almoH equal avidity on almoH every fpecies of 
animal fubfiance, whether dead or living: water-fnails, 
worms, the larvae or grubs of water-inledls, the fpawn 
and young fry of filh, and fuch larger filh themfelves as 
they are able to feize, as well as even the moH putrid 
garbage, are all acceptable food to the eel; and it is not 
Improbable, where there is a fcarcity of thefe, that they 
M N A. 
may devour even aquatic plants or mud. M. Septfort- 
taines once faw an eel, about two feet long, feize and 
devour two young ducks; and it is well known, that, in 
the llomachs of lome large eels caught in a canal near 
Twickenham about thirteen years ago, there were found, 
undigefled, the limbs and parts of the bodies of feveral 
fmall ducks which had been fullered to fwim about on 
that water. Of the carnivorous propenfity of eels I have 
an infiance flrong in my own recollection. When I was 
a boy, I law expofed forfale, at Retford, in Nottingham- 
ihire, a quantity of eels that would have filled a couple 
of wheel-barrows, the whole of which, as I afterwards 
learnt, had been taken out of the body of a dead horfe, 
thrown into a ditch near one of the adjacent villages; 
and I can allure the reader rhat they did not difgrace 
their food : they were, upon the whole, as large and fine 
eels as any perfon would defire to purchale. 
Careful as eels may be to expole themfelves as little as 
poflible, yet they are not always able to efcape that dan¬ 
ger in which they are conllantly involving their fellow 
filh. It is true they have not, in general, much to fear 
from the predatory tribes of the water. The pike and 
the perch, however enormous their lize, are ufually out¬ 
witted in their attacks, by the eel fuddenly finking itfelf 
into the mud: but this precaution does not equally l’ecure 
it from the attack of the otter and cormorant. The 
heron, the crane, and the flork, likewife, fuccefsfully 
make war upon it. Thefe birds will often remain for 
hours on the watch for eels; and, when they lee one of 
them move in the mud, they in a moment Hrike at and 
fecure it. 
From the great agility and mufcular Hrength of thefe 
filh, they are enabled to make long voyages, and to fur- 
mount numerous obfiacles, which to many other fifh 
would be infuperable. It will not, perhaps, be generally 
credited, though it is a well-afcertained fad, that, in 
moiHevenings, they oftentimes leave the water, and travel 
to confiderable diltances over land. Several infiances, 
and thofe mofi fatisfadlorily authenticated, have been 
mentioned of this. A gentleman of my acquaintance, 
(fays Mr. Bingley,) who refided fome years at Carlhalton, 
has more than once Humbled over them in the meadows, 
as he has returned from fifliing in the river Wandle. 
The intention of thefe Hrange excurfions is, no doubt, 
for the purpofe chiefly of changing their reiidence. This 
alone will account for thecircumllances of eels being often 
found in ponds that were never Hocked with them, and 
that have no immediate communication whatever with 
any ditch or river. Their faculty of continuing out of 
water for a long time together without injury is owing to 
the peculiar llru&ure of their gills. They are able, when¬ 
ever occafion requires it, to clofe the orifices of thefe 
with fuch nicety, that the air cannot penetrate to injure 
them. 
The extenfive migrations of eels have been more noticed 
on the continent than in England. In thefe migrations 
they obferve an order different from that of mofl other 
migratory fifh. - Whilfi the greater part of thefe pafs from 
the fea up the rivers, in order to depofit their offspring j 
the eels, on the contrary, in all maritime countries, fhape 
their courfe downward, for this purpofe, 1 to the ocean. 
It has been remarked, that in their migrations they travel 
only in the night, and fartheff when it is darkelt and 
moil cloudy. A bright moonlight night, or even fires 
lighted on the banks, it is faid, will for a while arreff 
their progrefs. In the fpring of the year, and at no other 
feafon, eels are caught in the Baltic in great abundance 5 
and they are then confidered to be in the higheft per¬ 
fection. The perfons occupying mills on the river Avon, 
in Hampfliire, have difcovered that, during every flood 
that happens in the month of Oftober, great numbers of 
eels go down the river. Turning this to advantage, they 
have deviled a kind of box, which they call an eel-flage, 
and which they place in a convenient part of the ffream 
for the purpofe of catching them , and they find that no 
$ eela 
