446 EECKHOUT EEL ished from the kingdom. Archbishop Odo broke with an armed force into the villa where Elgiva resided, defaced the beauty of that lady with brands, and exiled her to Ireland ; but she returned to England, where she suffered hamstringing and died. It is in dispute among historians whether Elgiva, who was within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, was the wife or the mistress of Edwy. The Eng- lish favored the ecclesiastics rather than the king, and a rebellion broke out under Edgar, a younger brother of Edwy, who was chosen king by the Mercians. Edwy was obliged to flee beyond the Thames, and the civil war was ended in 957 by a general meeting of the thanes, who determined that that river should be a boundary between the dominions of the two brothers. -Edwy governed Wessex and Kent till his death. EECKHOUT, or Eekhont, Gerbrant Tan den, a Dutch painter, born in Amsterdam, Aug. 19, 1621, died there, Sept. 22, 1674. He was a pupil of Eembrandt, and in some measure suc- cessful in imitating his manner, especially in the early part of his life. He excelled chiefly in portraits, and these as well as his historical pictures abound in the best collections of Hol- land, while several are to be found in Germany. EECLOO, or Eeeloo, a town of Belgium, in the province of East Flanders, 11 m. N. W. of Ghent; pop. in 1866, 9,564. It has an active industry and commerce in woollen and cotton fabrics, hats, tobacco, and oil, and is an im- portant grain market. EEL, a name applied to several malacopterous fishes of the families anguillidce, congeridce, and murcenidm, especially to the typical genera anguilla (Ouv.), conger (Cuv.), and murcena (Thunb.). From their snake-like appearance, and the absence of ventral fins or posterior limbs, they have been called anguiform apodes ; they all have the body more or less elongated and cylindrical, no ribs in the skeleton, a csecal stomach, and simple not-jointed fin rays. In the genus anguilla, to which the common eel belongs, the scarcely apparent scales are cy- cloid, narrow, oblong, arranged in groups at right angles to each other, forming a kind of lattice-work under the cuticle ; the whole skin is soft and slimy, thickly studded with mucipa- rous glands and ducts ; the nostrils are double, each having two orifices, the anterior prolonged into a tube, and the posterior opening above the mouth ; the teeth are card-like or villiform in both jaws, and a few on the anterior part of the vomer ; the gill opening on each side is very small, and just in front of the pectoral fin, which exists in all the species ; the dorsal fin begins at a considerable distance from the head, be- hind the pectorals, and forms a continuous fin with the caudal and anal; the lower jaw is longer than the upper. About 50 species are described. The common eel of the northern and middle states (A. Bostoniemis, Lesueur, and vulgarit, Mitch.) is greenish or olive-brown above, and yellowish or yellowish white be- neath, often with^a reddish tinge along the anal fin ; in a specimen 2 ft. long, measured by Dr. Storer, the short pectorals were about 8 in. from the end of the snout. The eel inhab- its both salt and fresh water, from the British provinces to the southern states, wherever it can find its favorite muddy bottoms and ext^n- sive flats ; it prefers shallows near the shore, where it may be caught in great numbers by hook and line, by bobbing, and by spearing ; the places frequented by it are called eel grounds, in which during winter the fishes bed them- selves in the soft mud to the depth of about a foot, and are then speared through holes cut in the ice ; the best time for catching them is at night, by torchlight. During their passage up and down rivers they are taken in baskets and pots baited with fish or any decaying matter. The eel is very voracious and quite omnivorous; when in good condition it is well flavored, though from its snake-like appearance (and it is only in form that it resembles a snake) most persons are prejudiced against it. The length varies from 6 in. to 2 ft. ; in summer it is sometimes seen weighing several pounds. At the mouths of the rivers emptying into Boston Common Eel (Anguilla vulgaris). harbor eels are caught in nets, 15 or 20 bushels at a time, and are kept alive until wanted in ditches supplied by the tide. The silver eel (A. argentea, Les.) is silvery gray, darker above, and satiny white below ; the pectorals are nearer the head than in the common spe- cies, of which, however, it is considered by some only a variety ; it is taken in pots in Oc- tober, when it leaves the ponds. A large spe- cies, caught in the lakes of western New York, is the beaked eel (A. rostrata, Les.) ; the snout is elongated and pointed ; the upper parts are olive-gray, sometimes slaty blue, and the lower parts white ; the dorsal and anal fins reddish ; length about 2 ft. The common eel of Europe (A. acutirostris, Yarrell) has a sharper snout than ours ; it is highly esteemed as food, and the London market is supplied principally from Holland, from which the eels are brought alive in vessels carrying each from 15,000 to 20,000 Ibs. Eels are much esteemed in other countries, especially, according to Ellis, in Polynesia, where they are often tamed and fed until they attain an enormous size. They are prolific, hardy, and easily preserved in salt, fresh, or brackish water. They make two migrations annually, one in autumn to the sea, the other in
