A study is made of intensity and anisotropy characteristics of energetic electron populations (>30 KeV) near the magnetotail surface at the Vela orbit (r?18 RE). Inferring from a unidirectional (&xgr;u) or bidirectional (&xgr;b) anisotropy of the electron flux that the electrons are on open or closed magnetic field lines, we find that the field lines in the magnetospheric boundary layer adjacent to the plasma sheet were closed in about one third of the boundary layer crossings studied and were open in about one eighth of those crossings. No closed field lines can be inferred for the boundary layer crossings contiguous to the high-latitude tail (lobe), but open field lines are inferred for a few such crossings. These observations support the idea that closed boundary layer flux tubes are swept from the subsolar surface of the magnetosphere along its flanks and into the tail and that the plasma sheet is generated at least in part by the incorporation of these closed flux tubes into the tail. Electron intensities in the portion of the boundary layer contiguous to the plasma sheet were less by a factor of ~2.5 than those within the plasma sheet and greater than those in the neighboring magnetosheath by about the same factor. Thus the plasma sheet is probably the source of the electrons in these regions. But electron intensities in the boundary layer adjoining the tail lobes were less by a factor of ~2 than those in the neighboring magnetosheath, suggesting that the magnetosheath is the source in these regions. In the magnetosheath, highly collimated beams (&xgr;u>1.0) of energetic electrons are seen near the magnetopause, most commonly on the duskside, and occur less than 25% of the time in which significant fluxes are measured. The beams are sporadic, lasting typically 5-30 min. The beams are aligned with the magnetopause, consistent with streaming of electrons along field lines draped around the surface of the magnetosphere, and are generally directed antisunward. It is suggested that energetic electrons observed in the magnetosheath originate from magnetospheric populations which escape from closed field lines in a corridor between x?-10 RE in the plasma sheet and the nose of the magnetosphere. Their escape and/or subsequent propagation into a weakening magnetosheath field gives rise to a collimated beam through conservation of the first adiabatic invariant. A collimated beam sometimes coexists with an approximately isotropic component, suggesting that the isotropic component may result in part from relaxation of the collimated beam due to pitch angle scattering.