The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-29
MYRJApS OF WRiGGLiNG EELS.
They Ciogged a Raceway on the Della
ware and Raritan Canal

ware anu Sahah
Eels caused a jam in the raceway to
the feeder of the Delaware and Raritan
canal at Scudder's Falls yesterday.
Chased by school of Delaware creek
pike, apparently the entire June hatch of
eels at the falls ran up the swift over
flow to escape death In the sharp jaws of
the pike and clogged the siX-foot stream
until 1, overlooked into the yard of Ed
ward Harding, adjoining the so-called
raceway.
Thousands Of cells were killed in the
lam thousands were left high and dry in
Hardng's yard when the pike retreated.
and hundreds of pike Were picked up on
land after having jumped from the stream
in their frantic efforts to cross the lead
ers of their school and feed on the young
cells
The sight of millions of cells damned in
one huge, wriggling mass, struggling to
escape from their regular July persecu-
tors, the pike, while many We're being
crushed to death by their fellows because
unable to advance. coupled with the sight
of thousands of shiny jumping, frantic,
hungry pike, all packed so tight in a
swift, shallow current, as to turn the wa
tiers over a two-foot embankment, was
one calculated to excite the most phleg-
tic follower of the rod and reel. Hard
ing says the fight for life lasted half an
hour.
Although almost too much overcome by
the sight to realize his opportunity,
Harding gathered enough pike to pickle
for his winters supply. beside seven
bushels to sell, and has enough young cells
in his yard to fertilZe his garden. Had
he retained his presence of mind, Harding
says. he could have caught enough pike
in half an hour to supply the population
of the city of Trenton.
But l was excited and only got a
bar'l" said Harding sorrowfully. AN I
wouldn't ha' got them, l guess, eff they
hadn't jumped in my yard in their ef-
forts to git at tn cells. Ono what I'll do
with tn eels. They're June's an too
small fer anythin' 'cept fertilizer, tho
they're pretty good stuff fer that" he
added.
Harding described the noise made by
the cells in their rush for life as similar
to that of the mouse bat and compared
the noise of the pike TO that of the
whack, whack of the beak of the wood
cock against the bark of an old oak. He
says during the scramble up stream he
made the discovery that cells are inclined
to cannibalism Thousands of cells were
not more than three inches in length,
and the large cells finding their progress
impeded by the little ones. would attack
them and bite them in half. He says one
part of his yard was strewn with pieces of
the bodies of young cells after the jam
in the raceway. He says it is not an I'M
common thing to find hundreds of young
eels wriggling about his grass plot in the
morning before the sun dries up the dew.
These cells come from the creek to the
ground and he has never been able to
explain just why they do so.
"Old Jim Allerton, who tended the
bridge for number of years" said Hard
ing, "once told me about a fight between
the cells an the black bass that was
somethin' terrific, but you know old Jim
told some stories what warn't like some
folks would think correct stories. But l
thinks he war right. Jim says the bass
swope down at the outlet and sort o.
formed themsel's into circuit round
about the eels before they could get in
the raceway to protec' themsels an the
slaughter, as Jim tells tn story, was
somethin' orful. But some folks swoped
down on the bass and driv them off afore
they could finish the feast