EELS. ^ 277 



ones, averaging a pound weight each, and some 

 even reaching four or five pounds. 



Eels are caught also by osier baskets called 

 leaps or grigs, sunk in different parts of the 

 stream. A new basket is never entered until it 

 has been some weeks in the water, the smell of 

 the wicker being, as is supposed, disagreeable 

 to the fish. They bite freely at the hook ; the 

 best bait being small gudgeons, minnows, or 

 sticklebacks, as being more easily gorged than 

 larger fish, which the Eels suck off the hooks. 

 The efficiency of the bait is increased by its 

 being first dried by exposure to the air, as it 

 is then less liable to be sucked off in fragments 

 by the small fry. Larger Eels are taken with 

 single hooks, than with forty or fifty hooks on 

 a long line across the stream, because the best 

 Eels swim near the bank. 



In the Thames, during the spring months, Eels 

 are taken abundantly by laying night-lines, but 

 the mass of weeds that springs up from the bot- 

 tom as the summer advances, necessitates the 

 discontinuance of that mode of fishing ; and the 

 delicious Eel-pies, so celebrated in the neighbour- 

 hood of Hampton and Twickenham, are chiefly 

 supplied from the canals of Holland, whence 

 they are imported much cheaper than they can 

 be caught even in the vicinity of the " Eel-pie 

 houses." 



During the season of its activity the Eel is 

 a voracious feeder. Aquatic insects and their 

 larvae, Crustacea and mollusca, the spawn of fishes, 

 and even fishes themselves, are devoured by them. 

 Mr. Yarrell says that the Eel will attack large 

 Carp, seizing them by the fins, though unable 



