The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-02
THE IMPRISONED EEL.
Things Not Altogether Hopeless, Even for
One in n Water Pipe.

A man who was OF sympathetic turn. but
knew very little about cells. said to man who
was at least equally sympathetic and knew
lot about them. that he had always felt sort OF
sorry for an Gel that got Into water pipe IL
seemed so utterly and irrecovcrabIy lost there'
doomed to stay in its narrow quarters Tor ne
There wasn't one chance in TC0. 1000 OOO that 1t
would ever turn around and make It's way back
through the network Of piles II had traNersed
to where Il cams in : and II it should II might
then have grown so big that II couldn't get back
through the grating.
The man who knew about cells said that he
had never seen thin eel taken out OF water
pine 1t might seem ne though they would find
nothing to eat in those narrow. restricted
spaces but us q matter OF fact they were not
tho only things there. II they could get in
other things could and did, and the cells found
food sufficient to support lie ana keep
them in good condition. 1t was certainly
dark in there. and II they got finally into
a small pipe they were gone: but as long
as they stayed in n main. even small one.
they would have some freedom OF movement.
and they would get enough to eat twas even
possible that they might at last escape from
their dark and narrow underground prison.
The EEL" sad the authority. comes into
the pipes originally probably when 1t Is very
small. 1t may have come at the outset down
tho stream into the water backed up by the
dam and thence have found its way through
strainer into the great water pipe or aqueduct.
in which it was carried along down into the
reservoir 1t may have tarried there for time.
and grown somewhat. but finally. in Its roam
ing around the walls. II comes to the outlet
into the big water main and 1t finds there some
where an opening in the strainer big enough
to squeeze through, and through it goes into
the big pipe, which II spacious and roomy
there and tor long distance, so that. even
then. the eel does not realz" its now all but
hopeless imprisonment ltRets enough there
to eat and it Just lives there and Whereabouts,
and continues To grow.
In the course Of time the eel wandcrs on.
The pipe is still big and spacious. aud the eel
may hold to II, passing numerous branches.
but finally, perhaps turning into one OF them,
a pipe foot or two in diameter. Even that
pipe Ia big enough not To crowd 1t: but 1t
has started in now on an underground maze
from which the chances Of escape alive are small
indeed. Still advancing. IL turns into Il smaller
main, ten-nch or nve-inch: and at last II
switches on into some snrv.ce pipe that it can't
turn around in. The eel may by this time have
come to be foot long. 1t goes ahcad to find
way ont. or the water carries it along. and
pretty soon it finds itself sliding into n mar
rowing spnce that il Nils up completely and
from which 1t cannot back out.
Inside of some building the water refuses
utterly to run from some particular outlet. and
pops out from the end Of the pipe. shutting of
the water a. completely as o cork would do.
The eel is very slippery. and they think they
can pull lin through. but it's Just too big to
get through the narrowed down final opening.
They can pull the eel a third OF the way through
have &c, tokc It out in ricc"@, and that is the
end of the life history Of that eel"