FISH NOTES 233 



thick as one's little finger. Six small Shorecrabs, 

 included, had made a fairly good meal for the 

 gluttonous fellow. 



How far wrong my conclusions may be I know 

 not, but I sincerely believe, although I have failed 

 as yet to convince any of my naturalist friends, 

 that many Eels come up from the sea in spring. 

 In May it is a constant practice with eel-babbers 

 to drop downstream at eventide, when the ebb 

 serves, and to fish at the bottom of it, and until 

 near high water, within a very short distance of 

 the harbour mouth. I have fished there myself, 

 and as soon as the tide began to make up have 

 captured freely goodly-sized Eels. It is well known 

 that in late autumn thousands upon thousands go 

 down to the sea. That these all perish, as some 

 would have us believe, I think highly improbable. 

 All that go down are by no means full grown or 

 gravid. And whence come those eels which in 

 spring and summer swarm the coast? Surely, as 

 likely from the depths of the ocean as down the 

 river ! And by the same manner of deduction, 

 are they not as likely to ascend the rivers as Smelts, 

 or Lamperns, or any other species ? 



