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
circumstance already related of so many large eels being seen dead or
dying during a hot summer, near the Nore, would appear to confirm his
assertion. If eels are oviparous, as Sir Humphry Davy thinks they are,
would not the ova have been found, especially in the conger,--many of
which are taken and brought to our markets, frequently of a very large
size? It does not appear, however, that any of the fringes along the
air-bladder have ever arrived at such a size and appearance as to have
justified any one in the supposition that they were ovaria, though, as
has been stated, distinguished naturalists, from the time of Aristotle
to the present moment, have been endeavouring to ascertain this fact.
Since the above was written, I have been shown ova in the lamprey, and
what appeared to have been melt taken from a conger eel, at a
fishmonger's in Bond-street. These specimens were preserved by Mr.
Yarrell, of Little Ryder-street, St. James's, who had the kindness to
open two eels, sent to him from Scotland, in my presence, and in which
the fringes were very perceptible, though they were without any ova.
That ingenious and indefatigable naturalist is, however, of opinion that
eels are oviparous, though he failed in producing proof that the common
eels were so.

"In further proof, h