368 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



Eels will eat anything fresh — they do not eat carrion. They 

 are fond of baits, such as birds, beasts, frogs, and worms, 

 as the babbers know well. But the water must be thick. 

 If the water is thick, and the weather propitious (S. wind), 

 you may catch as many eels by day as by night.* Eels, 

 as is well known, will travel over river-walls, from the 

 dikes to the rivers, or V2ce versa, choosing dewy grass to 

 travel upon. 



The broad-nosed eel bores into the dike-shores, and has 

 been dug out buried two and a half feet into the shore, 

 coiled up like a snake. I know of one dug out four feet 

 from a dike, in the solid marsh. 



The methods of capturing eels in the Broadland are 

 numerous, and some of them wonderful. 



1. Netting. t 



2. Darting, or picking, or pitching — 7 lbs. being the biggest 



got by darting. 



3. Skimming. 



4. Babbing. 



5. Hooks — night-lines and liggers for big eels that lie in 



pea-soupy beds of rivers. • 



6. Eel-baskets. 



7. Bow-nets. 



" Skimming." The Broadsman skims with a monster 

 landing-net, which he " deeves down " into the weeds of the 

 broad (chiefly in the months of July and August), and 

 pulls up filled with weeds and eels, which he forthwith sepa- 

 rates. He prefers to do this in a hot sun, after a rainy 

 night. I have known a stone of eels captured in two hours 

 by this method. They are often taken in the skim-nets 

 just before thunderstorms too. But he must cover his 



* Fide "On English Lagoons,"' "Wild Life on a Tidal Water," for full 

 description of babbing. 



t For full description of eel-sets, netting, babbing, darting, see author's 

 previous works, from "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads" to "On 

 English Lagoons." 



