152 FISHES AND FISHING. 



After that, I contrived eel tongs, whereby an eel can 

 be held with ease to the fishermen, enabling them to 

 pick out any eel from the well of a punt, or to handle 

 an eel in any way ; they are very useful to every 

 person fishing for eels, or having ought to do with 

 these unmanageable fish ; and I have lent mine to 

 many persons as a pattern, and also to Mr. Anderson 

 the fishing-tackle maker, of 71, Long Acre. 



A method of killing eels has been recently commu 

 nicated to me, by an old sporting gentleman, which 

 is, to make a longitudinal cut with a small sharp 

 knife immediately behind the head, direct through 

 the spine, which can be easily effected, the eel being 

 held by these tongs. 



The generation of eels was considered by the 

 Greeks, according to Oppian, to be by the intertwin 

 ing of their folds together, which brought off a kind 

 of slime, and that descending to the bed of the river, 

 vivified, and became a host of eelets. Aristotle states, 

 that there is no difference in the sexes of eels. Pliny 

 asserts the same thing, and says that they rub them 

 selves against rocks and stones, and so detaching 

 particles, or scales from themselves, these particles 

 vivify, and become young eels ; some modern natu 

 ralists think they are viviparous, others are of opinion, 

 and correctly , that they proceed from ova, the same 

 as other fish. 



