would otherwise prove so very deserving of their notice. In the Gmelinian edition of the Systema Naturæ the Fishes are divided into six orders: Apodal, Jugular, Thoracic, Abdominal, Branchiostegous, and Chondropterygious *. 1. Apodal; with bony gills, and no ventral fins. 2. Jugular; with bony gills, and ventral fins before the pectoral. 3. Thoracic; with bony gills, and ventral fins placed directly under the thorax. 4. Abdominal; with bony gills, and ventral fins placed on the belly behind the thorax. 5. Branchiostegous; with gills destitute of bony rays. 6. Chrondropterygious; with cartilaginous gills. * Apodes, Jugulares, Thoracici, Abdominales, Branchiostegi, and Chondropterygii. FISHES. APODAL FISH. THE Apodal Fish, in their appearance and manners, approach in some instances very nearly to the Serpent tribes. They have a smooth and slippery skin, in general naked, or covered only with small, soft, and distant scales. Their bodies are long and slender, and they are supposed to live entirely on animal substances. THE EEL TRIBE. IN this tribe the head is smooth, and the nostrils are tubular. The gill-membrane has ten rays. The eyes are covered with a common integument. The body is nearly cylindrical, smooth and slippery. The tail, the back, and the anal fins are united; and the. spiracle is behind the head, or the pectoral fins. There are about nine species, most of which are found only in the seas. One of these frequents our fresh waters, and three others occasionally visit our shores. THE COMMON EEL*. The Common Eel forms evidently a connecting link, in the chain of nature, between the Serpent tribe and the Fishes, possessing not only, in a great measure, the serpent form, but also many of their habits. It is frequently known to quit its element, 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. 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. A. imagines while 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 * Muræna Anguilla. Linn. sliding on level ground: this they continued till they had got into the dam above*. Of the migration of young eels from one part of a river to another, a singular instance is stated 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 ap pear, 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 perfectly formed in every respect, but not exceeding two * Arderon on the Perpendicular Ascent of Eels, in Phil. Tran. vol. xliv. p. 395 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 phenomenon takes place there every year about the same season*.” The usual haunts of eels are in mud, among weeds, under the 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, miss 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. They 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 Ser * Anderson's Bee, xi. p. 10. + Walton, 185. Note to Walton, 181. |