It is frequently known to quit its elements, and to wander, in the evening or night, over meadows in search of snails and other prey, or to other ponds for change of habitation. This will account for Eels being found in waters that have not been in the least suspected to contain them. An instance of this rambling spirit of the Eels is mentioned in Plott's Natural History of Staffordshire; and, from the following lines of Oppian, it appears to have been known to the antients:

Thus the mail'd Tortoise, and the wand'ring Eel,
Oft to the neighbouring beach will silent steal.

Mr. Arderon, in the Philosophical Transactions, says, that in June 1746, while he was viewing the flood-gates belonging to the water-works of Norwich, he observed a great number of eels sliding up them, and up the adjacent posts, to the height of five or six feet above the surface of the water. They ascended with the utmost facility, though many of the posts were perfectly dry, and quite smooth. They first thrust their heads and about half their bodies out of the water, and held them against the wood-work for some time; Mr. Arderon imagines, till they found the viscidity of their bodies sufficiently thick, by exposure to the air, to support their weight. They then began to ascend directly upwards, and with as much apparent ease as if they had been sliding on level ground: this they continued till they had got into the dam above*.

* Arderon on the Perpendicular Ascent of Eels, in Phil. Tran. vol. xliv. p. 395.

Of the migration of young eels from one part of a river to another, a single instance is related by Dr. Anderson in his publication called The Bee. "Having occasion (says this gentleman) to be once on a visit at a friend's house on Dee-side, in Aberdeenshire, I often delighted to walk by the banks of the river. I one day observed something like a black string moving along the edge of the river in shoal water. Upon closer inspection I discovered that this was a shoal of young eels, so closely joined together as to appear, on a superficial view, one continued body moving briskly up against the stream. To avoid the retardment they experienced from the force of the current, they kept close along the water's edge the whole of the way, following all the bendings and sinuosities of the river. Where they were embayed, and in still water, the shoal dilated in breadth, so as to be sometimes near a foot broad; but when they turned a cape, where the current was strong, they were forced to occupy less space, and press close to the shore, struggling very hard till they passed it.

"This shoal continued to move on night and day, without interruption, for several weeks. Their progress might be at the rate of about a mile an hour. It was easy to catch the animals, though they were very active and nimble. They were eels perfcctly formed in every respect, but not exceeding two inches in length. I conceive that the shoal did not contain, on an average, less than from twelve to twenty in breadth, so that the number that passed on the whole, during their progress, must have been very great. Whence they came, or whither they went, I know not. The place I remarked them at was six miles from the sea, and I am told that the same phænomenon takes place every year about the same season *."

The usaal haunts of eels are in mud, among weeds, under roots or stumps of trees, or in holes in the banks or the bottom of rivers. They are partial to still water, and particularly to such as is muddy at the bottom. Here they often grow to an enormous size, sometimes weighing fifteen or sixteen pounds.-One that was caught near Peterborough, in the year 1667, measured a yard and three quarters in length.

When kept in ponds they have been known to destroy young ducks. Sir John Hawkins, from a canal near his house at Twickenham, missed many of the young ducks; and, on draining in order to clean it, great numbers of large eels were found in the mud. In the stomachs of many of them were found, undigested, the heads and part of the bodies of the victims.

Eels seldom come out of their hiding-places but in the night, during which time they are taken with lines that have several baited hooks.-In winter they bury themselves deep in the mud, and, like the Serpent tribe, remain in a state of torpor; and they are so impatient of cold as eagerly to take shelter in a whisp of straw flung into a pond in severe weather. This has sometimes been practised as a mode of catching them §.

Eels are viviparous. They are so tenacious of life that their parts will continue to move for a considerable time after they are skinned and cut into pieces; and no other fish whatever will live so long out of the water as these. They are best in season from May to July; but may be caught with a line till September. When the water is thick with rains, they may be fished for during the whole day; but the largest and best are caught by night-lines. The baits are wasp-grubs, or dew-worms, minnows, or gudgeons.

ניר-עם וספרית כרגונים

THE GYMNOTUS TRIBE.

SOME of the species of Gymnotus inhabit the fresh waters, and others live in the ocean. They are all, except thrce, confined to the regions of the New Continent. The head is furnished with lateral opercula; and there are two tentacula on the upper lip. The gill-membrane has five rays. The body is compressed, and has a fin running along the under parts.

THE ELECTRICAL GYMNOTUS, OR EEL*.

This most singular fish is peculiar to South America, where it is found only in the rocky parts of rivers at a great distance from the sea.

On a transient view it bears a great resemblance both in shape and colour to the Common Eel. It is from three to four feet in length, and in the thickest part of its body ten or twelve inches in circumference. The head is fiat, and the mouth wide, and destitute of teeth. A fin about two inches deep extends from the point of its tail to within six inches of the head; and, where it joins the body, this fin is almost an inch thick. Across the body are several annular divisions, or rather rugæ of the skin, from which the fish should seem to partake of a vermicular nature, and to have the power of contracting or dilating itself at pleasure. It is able to swim backwards as well as forwards.

These fishes possess the singular property of giving a shock, similar in its effects to that produced from a charged jar, to any body, or any number of bodies connected together. In different publications, domestic and foreign, we have numerous accounts of experiments on the Electric Eel: the best of them seem those inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, by Dr. Williamson and Dr. Garden.

The former of these gentlemen says that, on touching an Electrical Eel with one hand, a sensation is experienced similar to that arising from touching the conductor of an electrical machine: with a short iron rod the same was felt, but less powerfully. While another person provoked the fish, Dr. W. put his hand into the water, at the distance of three feet from it, and felt an unpleasant sensation in the joints of his fingers. Some small fish were

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