THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
66 
porting stones of two or more pounds weight. By this means they build up 
considerable piles which, as before stated, may be to provide a refuge for their 
young. „ 
APODES—EELS. 
From the lamprey it is but a single step to the eel, though the former 
does not belong to the same order. Eels exist in considerable variety, and are 
found in both fresh and salt water. 
The Common Fresh-Water Eel is the best example of the genus, because 
while simplest in organization, it is also most common, being found in nearly 
all the streams of America and Europe. 
Their form is serpentine, but in all other 
respects they show little differences from 
predaceous fishes. They are extremely 
voracious, preferring game fishes, of which 
they devour incredible numbers, and hence 
are a source of great vexation to the 
owners of ponds stocked with game fish. 
They also eat crawfish, shrimps and other 
crustaceans, being very persistent in dig¬ 
ging under stones to get at them. Few 
fishes can swim through the water with 
such wondrous speed, and none are more 
daring. They burrow deep in the mud, 
seeming to be able to dive into the mire 
with the ease they pass through the water. 
Their voracity is so great that they are 
accused of seizing female fishes of con¬ 
siderable size and sucking the spawn 
from them. Eels of the fresh-water variety 
spawn at the head waters of streams and 
bring back with them a very large brood, 
though many of the young are devoured 
by bass and pickerel. It was formerly sup¬ 
posed that eels and lampreys spawn but 
once in a lifetime, but this belief is no 
more to be credited than a hundred other 
idle traditions once current about the 
animal. 
The Conger Eel, though a salt-water 
animal, is very like the species just de¬ 
scribed both in habits and organization, 
though it grows to be much larger, occa¬ 
sionally reaching a length of six feet. Both species are scaleless, and have the 
dorsal, caudal and anal fins confluent. The conger eel , while much larger, has 
organs of generation of much greater development than those of the common 
eel. In the female conger there is occasionally such an abnormal supply of 
eggs that instances have been known of the creature actually bursting from 
the enlargement of the ovaries. 
LAMPREY EELS MAKING THEIR NEST. 
