men call eel-fair; but they have been more
irregular in their proceedings since the interruption of the lock at
Teddington. These young eels are about two inches in length, and they
make their approach in one regular and undeviating column of about five
inches in breadth, and as thick together as it is possible for them to
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
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,