113 



ANGLING FOR EELS. 



The eel 1 is a migratory "fish, which breeds in the 

 sea, and, according to Sir E. Home, is hermaphrodite, 

 like the earth-worm and the snail ; while Colonel Bory 

 de St. Vincent conceives the opinion of Rondeletius is 

 correct, that they are male and female, and hreed like 

 serpents, bringing forth their young alive. M. Bory, 

 however, at the same time tells us they rarely go to 

 the sea, a mistake for which I am unable to account in 

 so well-informed a naturalist. Count Lacepede is in 

 raptures with the elegance, grace, and beauty of the 

 eel, but few anglers who have had eels come to their 

 trout-bait, and their lines twisted into Gordian knots 

 by their contortive writhings,' will probably agree with 

 the count. The haunts of eels are chiefly amongst 

 weeds, under roots and stumps of trees, holes, and 

 clefts in the earth, both in the banks and at the bottom, 

 and in the mud, where they lie witH only their heads 

 out, watching for prey ; also about flood-gates, wears, 

 bridges, and old mills, and in still waters that are 

 foul and muddy; but the smallest eels are to be met 

 with in all sorts of rivers. They are taken in great num- 

 bers by laying night lines, fastened here and there to 

 banks, stumps of trees, or stones, of a proper length for 

 the depth of the water, leaded so as to lie on the ground, 

 and a proper eel-hook whipped on each, baited with 

 garden worms, or lobs, minnows, hens' guts, fish 



(1) In Latin, Anguilla vulgaris. 



I 



