2 5 3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ful to cover their eels with sand to hide the caudal pulsations. Dr. 

 Marshall Hall, who in 1S31 discovered this secondary heart of the 

 eel, savs of it that "the action of this caudal heart is entirely in- 

 dependent of the pulmonic heart ; while the latter beats sixty the 

 former beats one hundred and sixty times in a minute. It continues 

 for a very long time after the influence of the pulmonic heart is en- 

 tirely removed." It is probably owing to this caudal heart that the 

 eel's tail is so highly sensitive and so strong. Eels can almost use 

 their tails like hands ; as, for instance, if confined to a tank or bucket, 

 they will grasp the edge with this hand-like tail, and by its help lift 

 themselves bodily over. Eels are very clean feeders ; if possible, 

 they like their food 'alive, and in all cases it is most essential that it 

 should be fresh. Even the slightest taint is too much for their keen 

 sense of smell and taste. They are sometimes seen cropping the 

 leaves of water-cresses, and other aquatic plants, as they float about 

 in the water ; but as a rule their food is altogether animal. They are 

 immense devourers of spawn of all kinds of fish. There are certain 

 well-known spawning-grounds in the Norfolk Broads, where the roach 

 and bream collect in vast numbers to spawn in the spring. To these 

 grounds the eels follow in hundreds. Mr. Davies, in his pleasant book 

 on " Norfolk Broads and Rivers," speaks of this habit of the eels, 

 and adds : " You can hear the eels sucking away at the spawn 

 in the weeds ; and they gorge themselves to such an extent that 

 they will lie motionless on their backs on the gravel, with distended 

 stomachs ; and when caught by the bab they will frequently die dur- 

 ing the night, instead of living for days, as an eel will otherwise do 

 in a boat." 



There are a good many ways of catching eels ; the commonest, of 

 course, being by the eel-bucks which are so often to be met with on 

 the Thames. Eel-bucks that are intended to catch the sharp-nosed or 

 frog-mouthed eels are set against the stream, and are set at night, as 

 those two descriptions of eels feed and run only at night. The snig- 

 eel, which is chiefly found in Hampshire, feeds by day ; and fishermen 

 have found by experience that snigs are only taken in the eel-bucks if 

 they are set with the stream, instead of against it. In Norfolk, where 

 immense quantities of eels are caught- every year, the capture is most- 

 lv effected bv eel-sets, which are nets set across the stream, and in 

 which the sharp-nosed eel is the one almost invariably taken. Besides 

 these eel-sets, however, the Norfolk Broadmen also fish for eels with 

 " babs," which can hardly be called sport in any sense of the terra. 

 The " bab," or " clod," as it is sometimes called, is a number of lob- 

 worms threaded on pieces of worsted, and all tied up in a bunch not 

 unlike a small mop. The bab is then tied on to the end of a cord at- 

 tached to a stout pole. The eel's teeth get entangled in the worsted 

 as soon as he attempts to take the bab, and he can then be lifted out 

 of the water either into the boat if the angler be in one, or else al- 



