EELS AND THEIR YOUNG. 259 



lowed to drop off the line into a pail, which the angler should place on 

 the bank at a convenient distance from his standing-place. Norfolk 

 " babbers " frequently catch four stone weight of eels to a boat per 

 night, especially in the spawning-grounds. Night-lines are also much 

 used for eels. These are long lines, weighted heavily at each end and 

 in the middle, and garnished with baited hooks one yard apart. 

 " Sniggling," immortalized by Mr. Burnand in his " Happy Thoughts," 

 is one of the most favorite ways of catching eels, and " stichering," a 

 Hampshire method, is perhaps one of the most amusing, though the 

 sticherer probably catches fewer eels than any other eel-hunter. The 

 only apparatus used is an old sickle, worn short and chipped so as to 

 present something of a saw-like edge ; this is tied firmly on to a light 

 pole about twelve feet long. Armed with these the sticherers betake 

 themselves to the water-meadows. In the wide, deep drains used for 

 irrigation eels abound, and the object of the sticherer is to thrust the 

 sickle under the eel's body, and, with a sudden hoist, to land him on the 

 bank, from which he is transferred to the bag. That there is every 

 chance, when on a stichering party, of having your eye poked out, or 

 your ear sawn off, of course only adds the necessary amount of dan- 

 ger and pleasurable excitement, without which all sport is tame. Of 

 all forms of eel-capture, however, there is none to compare to spear- 

 ing, of which there are two methods. The Norfolkmen mostly use 

 "picks" formed of four broad blades, spread out like a fan, between 

 which the eels get wedged. These are mounted on long, slender poles, 

 to enable them to be thrust into the mud, where the "picker" notices 

 the tell-tale bubbles rise which denote the presence of " Anguilla." 

 Eel-spearing of this kind takes place chiefly in winter, but there is an- 

 other form of this sport called " sun-spearing," which is much sought 

 after in the Irish loughs during the months of June and July. In the 

 early sunny mornings at that time of the year, when the water seems 

 to be principally composed of sunbeams, with a little hydrogen and 

 oxygen added, the sun-spearer sallies forth in any little boat he can lay 

 his hands on. Standing up in the bows, and, if alone, using his spear 

 to propel the boat gently along, he steals over the crystal waters of 

 the lough. Presently he sees the gleam of the " silver " eel as he lies 

 quietly at length on the sandy bottom. The spearer takes aim ; there 

 is a sudden " splitting of the atmosphere," as Mark Twain would say, 

 a splash, and either Anguilla comes up writhing on the twelve close-set 

 teeth of the sun-spear, or the spearer has taken a header into ten feet 

 of water. If the latter is a tyro at the apparently simple art of sun- 

 spearing, it may safely be prognosticated that, if he makes acquaint- 

 ance with the eel he is after, the meeting will be more likely to take 

 place under water than above it. 



Eels have the immense merit in the eyes of all careful people that 

 they more than repay any cultivation bestowed upon them. There is 

 always a demand for eels, and they never seem to be out of season. 



