it was remarked that the 10th of May was the day of what the fishermen 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, 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: