The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-10

an innocent looking eye when compared
with that of sea eel. The disturbed eel
assumed the offensive al once Snake
like it threw back its head at a half coil,
Just as RATHER takes its position to
strike, and lunged at the intruding tar,
its strong teeth flashing in the morning
sunlight. The tar jumped backward,
slipped on bunch of seaweed, rolled over
IN heap and scrambled out Of reach of
the enemy on all tours.
The mans sailor superstition was
aroused. As he afterward remarked, he
thought at the moment that he had tack
led genuine sea serpent. The boat hook
was a short handled affair, so his COM
panion rushed to the ships boat, Sc
cured one of the long oars and returned
to renew the attack. The eel was fright
eheu DIT. II did not attempt to run
away, but remained in a half coil ready
to strike the first enemy that approached
as the flsh appeared to be nearly as long
as the great oar, the seamen thrust the
ashen stick at their enemy rather gin
gerly. The instant, however, that the
broad, thin blade of the oar was within
striking distance the eel hit it. The i'm
pact caused the long stick to trembIe
A second and a third time was the oar
struck, and finally the eel succeeded in
Embedding its teeth firmly in the wood
ana in holding on with grip that
alarmed the men. The creature weighed
over ninety pounds, and when this mus
cular body, combined with q very re-
spectacle weight Writhed and tugged at
one end of the oar, the men at the other
end had their hands fun to retain the
out of their antagonist.
Inc hght between men and eel ragged
Tor half an hour. At last the eel weak
ened so that one man could hold the oar
The second man seized the bOathook and
struck the fish on the skull, finally
Iracturing the bone. 1t was hard fight
The men were nearly exhausted at the
nnlsh Close examination proved that
the eel was an enormous cOnger. The
great skin was carefully removed and
the body taken aboard ship and turned
a 70 a will
forget that fight.
The conger eel is no SLOUGH of a fish
It is the most ferocious of all the eel
sharp teeth its bite is by no means pois-
onous, although the skin contains pois-
onous properties. So sensitive and pre-
hensile are the tails of these eels that
fishermen off the lower California coast
nave known one of these fish to grasp
the gunwale Of the boat with the tail
and by sudden contraction OF the mus
Giles to throw itself overheard
of al the eel family the cOnger is pc
culiarly sensitive 10 cold, and where the
Colorado river empties into the Gulf Of
Lower California during the winter sea-
son, bringing to the warmer sea water
vast volumes of cold water from the
mountains conger eels have often been
taken floating helplessly at the surface.
Tens of thousands Of helpless fish are
then captured. They can progress rap
idly in any direction. but cannot de-
scend, because the action Of the frosty
water causes the air in their swimming
bladders to expand to such a degree that
the ordinary muscles cannot eXpel it at
will.
The eel is a very interesting fish to
scientists There is no group Of fishes
concerning the classification and history
of which there IS so much doubt as the
eel family. An infinite number have been
described but most of them are so badly
characterized or founded on individual
or trivial characters that the majority OF
fchthyologists VIII reject the Some
twenty-five species Of cells are known.
one cause for the multiplication Of spe-
cies Of eels is the partial and sometimes
total absence of bones. This phenome-
non, which is explained BY the hsh ex-