Our viands

There are a great number of kinds of eels beside the conger sold in the market, most of which come from Holland, and it is calculated that each vessel will bring over from 15,000 to 20,000 Ibs. of live eels; but eels are also found in most of the English rivers, and during the cold months they bury themselves in the mud of the river FISH 139 banks. People in Somersetshire find out their hiding- places by observing that the hoar frost is absent in certain spots, and, digging there, find them in great numbers. In America they are taken by spears thrust into the mud. Eels are generally believed to migrate to the sea in the autumn, and to return to the rivers in the spring, but, from their being so frequently found hibernating in mud banks during the winter, it is evident they do not all go out to sea. A gentleman kept some eels in a walled garden near Montrose for several years, and noticed that they always became very restless about August, trying to get out of the pond whenever it overflowed, and were always found travelling in the direction of the sea. The eels lay torpid during the winter, but became voracious in the spring, one swallowing as many as twenty-seven large worms at a meal. The eel would seem a singular kind of pet, yet we read in Ellis's book on the South Seas that a chief of Otaheite had a pet eel, which would come to the surface when he whistled for it, and feed out of his hand. The lamprey strongly resembles the eel, but belongs to a different class. It is not often seen in the market now, but was formerly considered a great delicacy ; and it will be remembered that King Henry I. died from the effects of eating too many of them. The Severn is famous for lampreys, and Pennant says that it is an ancient custom in the city of Gloucester to present the Sovereign annually with a lamprey pie, covered with a large raised crust.* The Thames formerly supplied a million or more lampreys to Dutch fishermen for bait. * In 1341, £12, 55. 8d. was paid to the Sheriff of Gloucester for forty-four lampreys for the king. 140 OUR VIANDS The most remarkable of the eel tribe is the gymnotus^ or electric eel, a native of tropical America, which has the faculty of imparting a very powerful electric shock to anyone touching it. Humboldt wrote that this creature was caught by driving horses into the water to receive the shock, after which they are for a time powerless, but his account has not been verified. One of these electric eels was kept for many years in a tank in the old Polytechnic Institution. Some of the species may still sometimes be seen in aquariums. Turning from these wriggling semi-serpents to edible Crustacea, we find a large number of shell-fish to a certain extent resembling each other, but varying in size from the great crab, lobster, and crayfish — weighing several pounds, to the tiny shrimp — all excellent eating, although con- demned by physicians as unwholesome.