Some of my readers who have, like myself, long passed the season of youth, will remember how, in our juvenile days, the more sophisticated of our fellows used to try to puzzle our infantine intellect by a jangling rhyme having the semblance of Latin, which ran thus: -

Infirtaris inoaknonis, Inmudeelsare inclaynoneis; and in this way we learnt two very useful scraps of knowledge, viz., that tar was obtained from fir trees and not from oaks, and that eels might be found in mud, but not in clay. But there are eels and eels, and the great conger, the head of the clan, instead of hiding himself timidly in a mud bank, swims boldly about in the ocean, and lays him down to rest fearlessly on a rocky shelf, in sight of other fishes, most of which are too weak to attack him and drive him from his chosen resting-place. It is only of late years that the conger has found a place among edible fishes in England, although credited with forming the chief ingredient in turtle soup; but on the Continent it has long been valued, especially for imparting richness to soups and gravies. There is, however, a soupcon of danger in the delicacy, for our medical works recognise a special poison appertaining to the conger, which sometimes produces a disease resembling cholera, although it may usually be eaten with impunity. This applies also to other fish, and may probably be referred to unwholesome food on the part of the fish, which is certainly the case with oysters living near the mouths of rivers, the waters of which are contaminated with lead or other minerals.

But in South Africa the eating of a dried fish known as snoek produces a curious effect, causing the face to swell as though there existed an epidemic of mumps. This, it is believed, is due to the fish having been hung up to dry in the moonlight. Men of science are slow to believe in lunar influence, but in this case it appears to be a well-known fact which seems deserving of investigation.

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 lbs. 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 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, 5s. 8d. was paid to the Sheriff of Gloucester for forty-four lampreys for the king.

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 condemned by physicians as unwholesome.

The aquarium has revealed to us a great deal with regard to these as well as to other denizens of the 'vasty deep,' and it is a most amusing and interesting sight to watch two lobsters stalking, with measured strides, on their toes across the sand of their tank, and sitting down opposite to each other in a threatening attitude, each apparently waiting for the other to commence hostilities, and both being too lazy to begin; whilst the frisky little shrimps go darting through the water at full speed as though bound on an errand of life or death. The fishermen at Gordon Haven say, according to Mr. Peach, that they have often seen the old lobsters with their young ones playing around them, and that when they have found themselves watched, the mother lobster would give a danger-signal by rattling her claws, whereupon they would all rush to shelter under the rocks.

Almost all these Crustacea change colour in boiling - a fact now known to everybody, but we have probably all heard the story of the great artist who, in painting the miraculous draught of fishes, took his models from the fishmonger's shop, and, all unconsciously, painted his lobsters red. Upon his error being pointed out to him he coolly exclaimed, 'That makes it all the greater miracle.' It is also well known that all these Crustacea cast their shells, and just before and after this performance they are soft and watery, and so unfit to eat; but the hermit crab never possessed a shell on the hinder part of the body, so he requisitions disused shells of various species of molluscs, and uses them as his habitation, changing from time to time as need or inclination dictates.

Among molluscs we find many dainty morsels, the prime favourite being the oyster. Nothing can exceed the delicate flavour of a 'Whitstable native,' but, unfortunately, notwithstanding the laudable efforts of the late Frank Buckland to preserve and cultivate this oyster, it continues scarce and dear, 'natives' which come from beds at Whitstable, Rochester, Melton, Colchester, Burnham, and a few other places, being seldom, if ever, to be had under half-a-crown a dozen. There are, however, other kinds, such as the Anglo-Dutch, which are brought from abroad and laid down in English waters, which are cheaper, and fairly good; and, of late, deep sea oysters, in great, rough, heavy shells, but of good flavour, have been sold as low as sixpence a dozen. We get also great numbers of cheap American oysters - blue points - relished by some people, but the flavour of which does not commend itself to palates used to English 'natives.' There are such vast beds of oysters on the shores of some of our Colonies - notably at the Cape - that we cannot help thinking a great industry might be developed in exporting them to Europe. Even in days when travelling was so slow that it probably took longer for vessels to come from Italy to Britain than it now does from the Cape, the Romans contrived to transport the highly-prized British oyster to gratify the palate of Roman epicures; and Juvenal speaks of the taste of one who -

' At the first bite each oyster's birthplace knew, Whether a Lucrine or Circaean he'd bitten, Or one from Rutupinian deeps in Britain.' *

The fact is the ancients were not only greater epicures than the moderns, but took much more trouble than we do to gratify their tastes. In many respects this was a decided gain to the community, for it led to the acclimatisation of various animals and plants; and in the case offish, not only were they transported long distances, but they were much more carefully preserved in ponds and lakes than at present. It is even said that Lucullus had a canal cut through a mountain in the neighbourhood of Naples, that fish might more easily be transported to his villa, whilst many noble Romans seem to have kept fish as pets. It is related that the daughter of Drusus adorned one of her finny pets with rings of gold; whilst Hortensius, the orator, wept at the death of a turbot which he had fed with his own hand. Coming down to mediaeval times, we find fishponds attached to every monastery. The pilgrim adorned his hat with the scallop-shell, the reason for which practice is rather obscure: it seems probable that it was taken in the first place as a useful article, a substitute for a plate or spoon, in which doles of various kinds might be received, and that it afterwards became the badge of pilgrimage, especially to the shrine of St. James of Compostella; and it is a curious fact that even at the present day, oyster eating commences in London on St. James' Day, when the children collect the shells to form a grotto or shrine, in which they burn a candle in honour of the saint, and solicit alms from the passers-by, the contribution being received in an oyster shell. The scallop is not so delicate in flavour as the oyster, but is more substantial, and, fried in egg and bread crumbs, is not to be despised; neither are those plebeian delicacies - periwinkles, cockles, and whelks - sold so largely on barrows in the London streets, so many of the latter piled on shells, with vinegar and pepper ad libitum for a penny.

* It is to the Romans we are indebted for the discovery of our native oyster, for antiquaries are agreed that it formed no part of the dietary of the Britons prior to the Roman occupation, so that whenever oyster shells are found in the excavation of tombs or habitations, the remains discovered are relegated to Roman or post-Roman times.

It would seem that in the fourteenth century, whale, porpoise, and grampus were sold as fish, large prices being paid for slices of these creatures during Lent, and one of the Harleian manuscripts contains a recipe for making 'puddynge of porpoise.'