M U R 
cels worth mentioning can be caught in this way at any 
other feafon of the year. It is more than probable that 
the eels which are thus caught are near their breeding¬ 
time ; and that they pafs to the fea, or the mouths of 
rivers in the neighbourhood of the fea, for the very pur- 
pofe that the falmon pafs from the fea upward toward 
the fource of rivers. One inftance in proof of this is 
given in a remark of profeffor Bradley, written near eighty 
years ago, that 11 about the buoy in the Note, the fifiier- 
men take an eel-like fifh about Chriftmas, that has its 
belly full of live young ones, almoft as {mail as hairs.” 
Mr. Allen, in the Philofophical Tranfa&ions, obferves, 
that eels breed for the moft part about the month of 
February, a time of the year when few are caught, except 
where they are preferved in ponds. This gentleman 
opened two; and in one he found eggs, and in the other 
living offspring. 
In fome countries, and particularly about the canals 
of Venice, the eels return about the beginning of fpring. 
This is peculiarly the cafe from the Adriatic fea, to¬ 
wards the lakes and marfiies of Comachio, which are 
celebrated for eels. They arrive at the Po, though very 
young ; but they do not iffue thence to return to the fea, 
lays Spallanzani, until they have acquired a fuflicient 
growth, and are almoft become adults. If the weather 
have been warm, and favourable to their development 
and growth, the young ones ufually commence their 
voyage from the fea up the rivers about the middle or 
latter end of April, by which time fome of the largeft 
have attained the length of more than two inches : the 
greater part, however, are fmaller. They keep clofe to 
the banks, and in appearance form near the furface a 
band of three or four inches long. Their motions are 
performed with confiderable rapidity, and they follow all 
the bendings of the river, by which, although the length 
of their voyage is greatly increafed, they avoid the current, 
which, at this period of their growth, they would not have 
the power to Item. Where the water is tolerably ftill, 
they expand their width ; but, wherever the current runs 
ltrongly round a cape, they occupy as little fpace as pof- 
fible, prels clofely to the ftiore, and llruggle hard till 
they have palled it. When by accident their line is 
broken, and they are thrown towards the middle of the 
ftream, as foon as the impediment is removed or over¬ 
come, they immediately make for the bank again. In 
this manner they proceed, in continual motion, night 
and day, for three weeks or a month. If we eftimate 
their progrefs at the average rate of about half a mile in 
an hour, (though, were there no impediments, it would 
be conliderably more than this,) and that they are only 
twelve in breadth, it will follow that the whole number 
palling up one fide of the river alone in the courfe of 
thirty days would be near one hundred and forty mil¬ 
lions ! What an enormous annual increafe if we mul¬ 
tiply this fum by the whole number of rivers in Great 
Britain! 
Turing their progrefs thefe little animals meet with 
numerous obftacles, but particularly from weirs and 
flood-gates, where, no doubt, great multitudes perilh. 
With refpedt to the latter, it is known that they are able 
to afcend, by means of the vifcidity of their Ikin, up the 
perpendicular boards and polls to the height of feveral 
feet above the furface of the water. But whoever, at this 
feafon of the year, examines thefe places, will find a great 
number which, not having had ftrength to furmount the 
obllacle, are adhering to the wood, and dead. In fome 
places it is cuftomary to hang ftraw ropes in fuch fitua- 
tions as may aid their afcent; and, if this were a general 
practice, it would tend very materially to the increafe of 
the breed. I prefume that it mull have been much 
larger eels than thefe that Mr. Arderon fpeaks of having 
feen afcenrl the flood-gates of the water-works at Nor¬ 
wich to the height of five or fix feet, although the boards 
and polls of thefe were in many places perfedlly dry and 
fmoofh. He fays that the animals firft thrv.lt their head* 
Vol. XVI. No. 1105. 
/ENA. 205 
and about half their bodies out of the water, and, for 
fome time, held them againft the wood-work, till, as 
Mr. Arderon imagines, they found the vifcidity of their 
bodies fufficiently thickened, by expofure to the air, to 
fupport their weight. They then began their alcentj 
and, fays this gentleman, proceeded upward with as much 
apparent eafe, as if they had been Hiding along level 
ground, till they got into the dam above. Phil. TranJ'. 
vol. xliv. p. 395. 
Profeffor Bradley attempted, in earthen pans, to breed 
and keep young fifh. Amongft many others, he pro¬ 
cured fome eels which were not thicker than a coarfe 
thread. For fix months they were always immerfed in 
the mud or earth at the bottom of the pans, having only 
a fmall hole open where their mouths were. Various 
other kinds of filh were at firlt kept in the fame veifels; 
Mr. Bradley has often feen the eels feize a fifh as it palled 
by them ; and, he fays, if he had not removed feveral 
which he had put into other pans, he lhould foon have 
loll them all. 
There is at prefent not much known relpefting the 
growth of filh. Numerous attempts to rear them in clofe 
veffels under immediate infpeCtion have been made, but 
none of thefe have been attended with the delired luccefs, 
fince, in this confined Hate, and deprived of their natural 
food, their development mult necelfarily be much (lower 
than in the open waters. There cannot be a llronger 
illuftration of this circumftance than that which was 
afforded by the eels that were kept by M. Septfontaines. 
In the month of June 1779, he procured fixty eels, each 
about feven inches in length, which he put into a large 
refervoir. At the end of more than four years, namely, 
in September 1783, they had only increafed to the length 
of about feventeen inches; in October 1786, they mea- 
fured about twenty inches ; and iaftly, in July 1788, after 
a confinement of upwards of nine years, not more than 
about twenty-one inches. 
The hybernation, or winter retirement, of eels, is not 
a little curious. I am credibly informed that they do 
not merely fink themfelves deep into the mud, but that 
they oftentimes make their way to the dillance even of 
three or four yards under the bank of the river or ditch 
which they frequent. In fuch fituations they have been 
dug out in immenfe numbers, coiled together in one 
great mafs. An inftance of this took place near Waltharn, 
lome years ago, in which there was as many difeovered as 
would have filled a bufttel. 
Thefe fifh are ufually confidered in higheft perfe'dlion 
for the table from the commencement of fpring till about 
the end of July: yet they continue good till the end of 
September or beginning of OiSlober. 
Cepede mentions five varieties of the common eel; 
two differing in colour, the other three in fhape; the 
firft obferved by Spallanzani, the reft by citizen Noel 
of Rouen. 
13 . The firft variety is called acerina, and was found by 
Spallanzani in the marihes of Chiozza, near Venice. It 
is yellow on the belly, fmaller than the common eel, 
and never quits the marfiies in autumn to pafs into 
the fea. 
7. The fifhermen of Rouen obferve, that the firft eels 
they catch in the Seine are whiter than thofe caught 
afterwards ; that they are of a redder colour on a rocky 
bottom, and take a darker lliade in a few days after they 
are put into ponds or refervoirs; that they are of a whiter 
colour where the bottom is fandy. But, belldes thefe 
varying {hades of the common eel, an eel comes into the 
Seine from the fea at fpring-tides, and returns at the 
fame time with the whitings : its head is rather fmaller ; 
but it is a handfome fifh, and pretty large. 
The pimpemeau is another variety found in the 
Seine, with a i'mall head, but the fnout is long ; and the 
fifh is of a brown colour. 
£. The guifeau is found in the fame river: the head 
is ftiorter and thicker than the common eel, the body 
3 G ftiorter. 
