be. As the procession generally lasts two or three days, and as they
appear to move at the rate of nearly two miles and a half an hour, some
idea may be formed of their enormous number.

[6] From the following lines of Oppian, the rambling spirit of
eels seems to have been known to the ancients--

The wandering eel,
Oft to the neighbouring beach will silent steal"

[7] I have been informed, upon the authority of a nobleman well
known for his attachment to field sports, that, if an eel is
found on land, its head is invariably turned towards the sea,
for which it is always observed to make in the most direct line
possible. If this information is correct (and there seems to be
no reason to doubt it.) it shows that the eel, like the swallow,
is possessed of a strong migratory instinct. May we not suppose
that the swallow, like the eel, performs its migrations in the
same undeviating course?


"Eels feed on almost all animal substances, whether dead or living. It
is well known that they devour the young of all water-fowl that are not
too large for them. Mr. Bingley states, that he saw exposed for sale at
Retford, in Nottinghamshire, a quantity of eels that would have filled a
couple of wheelbarrows, the whole of which had been taken out of the
body of a dead horse, thrown into a ditch near one of the adjacent
villages; and a friend of mine saw the body of a man taken out of the
Serpentine River in Hyde Park, where it had been some time, and from
which a large eel crawled out. The winter retreat of eels is very