carp alone comes in for a small modicum of
praise, but it is merely naturalised at Java,
being only found in some rivers of the western
provinces. A few species, such as the rohita,
morulus, and lobocheilus, are sufficiently
numerous and large to be useful in this way, and
that is all. The labeobarbi are eaten in some
places; in others, the people prefer worshipping
them.

As we are now to bid good-bye to fish of this
class, and enter upon the acquaintance of a
family distinguished by a totally different form
and look, and to which the following remarks
would be in no degree applicable—the eels—it
is here necessary, in justice to Dr. Bleeker, to
say that his likenesses, so far, exhibit one
feature which must go far to raise the artist in
the estimation of all those interested in the
character of the finny tribe. This feature is
the almost entire absence of that lugubrious,
fretful expression of face we see in all portraits
of fish. Let the artist be who or what he may,
the unhappy fish looks as if he were given up
to hopeless misanthropy. In Cuvier's great
work you will not find a fish that does not seem
as utterly sick of the world, as a man who has
invested his all in bad accommodation-bills and
married a drunken wife.

There are people who like fishing for eels, who
think there are worse things than to sit in some
out-of-the-way nook, shady and quiet, by a deep
pool where the brown heathy river eddies and
swirls softly by the steep bank, watching the
float swim away, going down sharply as the
hungry fish tug at the tough bright red worms;
there are people who have fished in the dark
Scotch lochs for the great dangerous-looking eels
that live deep in their silent waters; or in still
moats by old granges, where the hinds catch them
with whip-cord lines and fishing-rods like great
flails, throwing all their rude energies into the
pastime, tugging at the rod when a fish strikes as
if they would root up a tree, flinging the eels,
when they catch them, over the nearest
haystack, and when they miss, shouting, "Dammun,
ah thowt ah heddun theer." There are other
people too who love to angle with a hand-line on
breezy October days for conger off the Forelands.
Some of these good folks may possibly have got
tired of always having the same thing, and
would like a change in the way of eel fishing? If
so, they have only to go to Borneo, Sumatra,
Java, and a few other places mentioned by Dr.
Bleeker, to find variety enough. Such eels!
Purple, green, gold, and golden brown; spotted,
striped, barred, and marbled; eels in such hosts
that we can only stay to speak of a few.

The first of Dr. Bleeker's eels (the
aphthalmichthys abbreviatus) is a creature some
eighteen inches long, and not more than a
third of an inch wide; of a beautiful purple on
the back, and gold colour below, with a row of
tiny symmetrical spots running along each side
from the head to the tail. Then there is a fierce
spotted eel (the muræna maculata), some two
feet long and an inch and a half deep, with a
long powerful dorsal fin, a file of sharp teeth,
and a bright blue eye. It is wonderfully marbled,
quite a picture; coloured dark green, pale green,
and purple. Then there is a beautiful eel, with
dark green back and bright green belly, with a
golden dorsal fin, which is prolonged over the
tail, and then runs along underneath the body.
Then there is (I wish there wasn't) the
aphthalmichthys javanicus, of a most gorgeous green
on the back, and gold colour below, also with a
row of tiny dots from head to tail, and a small
mouth, but with a threatening, putty look about
the gills, as if, like other good-looking individuals,
it could get out of temper. Though a yard long,
to judge from its portrait, it is not more than half
an inch thick, and displays neither dorsal nor
ventral fin. Then there is an eel with a name
almost as long as itself (the aphthalmichthys
macrocephalus!), of much the same proportions,
also coloured dark green on the back, and of a
pure golden yellow underneath, with wonderful
tiny eyes. Then there are many eels. Then we
come to a creature (the murænesox singaparensis)
which, if I had the good fortune to hook,
I should decapitate as soon as possible; for,
though a magnificent eel, two feet long, with
dark green back, pale green sides, brownish
golden fin, and large yellow eye, yet it has a range
of teeth which I should not care to test. In
addition to four long and extremely sharp cutting
teeth in the upper jaw, there is a row of most
formidable grinders or crushing teeth, shaped
somewhat like pointed acorns in their cups,
running along the roof of the mouth, while the
under jaw is nearly as well stocked. However,
we soon afterwards come to an eel (the
brachysomophis cirrocheibus) which looks still more
formidable; in fact, I think if I caught him, I
should not even go near enough to try decapitation,
but should adopt the expedient put in
force by a friend of mine, who, finding himself
the captor of an ill-looking eel, drew his knife
and resolutely cut away, not only the fish, but the
tackle also. This redoubtable animal is about
four feet long. The mouth is large enough to
give a serious bite, and is furnished with a
row of powerful teeth; the small oval deep blue
eye is set almost at the fore end of the head. The
prevailing colour of the throat and body is orange,
passing in places into a purplish red, and marbled
with purple here and there almost of a black hue.
All this, with the swollen look of the throat, gives
it very much the appearance of a serpent, equally
beautiful and repulsive. And now we pass more
eels, some marvellously long and beautifully
coloured, until we are arrested by a most snaky-
looking thing, not so large as the great fish just
described, but still more like a serpent; the
dorsal fin rises like a hood from its head, the
eye is small and round; it is marbled all over
with yellowish green, dirty Indian red and black.
Altogether, it is decidedly unpleasant to look at,
and we gladly hurry on to gaze at an eel so
beautiful that it must be quite delightful to be
eaten by it, and any worm or shrimp so honoured
ought to blush at his own unworthiness of such
a preference. Some two feet long, of the most
graceful form conceivable, it at once catches the