curious. They not only get deep into the mud, but in Bushy Park, where
the mud in the ponds is not very deep, and what there is, is of a sandy
nature, the eels make their way under the banks of the ponds, and have
been found knotted together in a large mass. Eels vary much in size in
different waters. The largest I ever caught was in Richmond Park, and it
weighed five pounds, but some are stated to have been caught in Ireland
which weighed from fifteen to twenty pounds. Seven pounds is, I believe,
no unusual size. The large ones are extremely strong and muscular.
Fishing one day at Pain's Hill, near Cobham, in Surrey, I hooked an eel
amongst some weeds, but before I could land him, he had so twisted a new
strong double wire, to which the hook was fixed, that he broke it and
made his escape."

Sir Humphry Davy's opinions respecting eels are quoted from his
_Salmonia_:[8] Mr. Jesse adds:


[8] See MIRROR, vol. xii. p. 253.


"It is with considerable diffidence that one would venture to differ in
opinion with Sir Humphry Davy, but I cannot help remarking, that, as
eels are now known to migrate _from_ fresh water, as was shown in the
case of the Richmond Park ponds, this restless propensity may arise from
their impatience of the greater degree of warmth in those ponds in the
month of May, and not from their wish to get into water still warmer, as
suggested by Sir Humphry Davy. Very large eels are certainly found in
rivers, the Thames and Mole for instance, where I have seen them so that
they must either have remained in them, or have returned from the sea,
which Sir H. Davy thinks they never do, though I should add, that the