THE COMPLETE ANGLER 179 



but so small as not to be easily discerned, by reason 

 of their fatness ; but that discerned they may be ; and 

 that the he and the she-eel may be distinguished by their 

 fins. And Rondeletius says he has seen eels cling together 

 like dew-worms. 



And others say, that eels, growing old, breed other 

 eels out of the corruption of their own age ; which, Sir 

 Francis Bacon says, exceeds not ten years. And others 

 say, that as worms are made of glutinous dew-drops, 

 which are condensed by the sun's heat in those countries, 

 so eels are bred of a particular dew, falling in the months 

 of May or June on the banks of some particular ponds or 

 rivers, apted by nature for that end ; which in a few 

 days are, by the sun's heat, turned into eels ; and some 

 of the ancients have called the eels that are thus bred the 

 offspring of Jove. I have seen, in the beginning of July, 

 in a river not far from Canterbury, some parts of it 

 covered over with young eels, about the thickness of 

 a straw ; and these eels did lie on the top of that water, 

 as thick as motes are said to be in the sun ; and I have 

 heard the like of other rivers, as namely, in Severn, where 

 they are called yelvers ; and in a pond, or mere, near 

 unto Staffordshire, where, about a set time in summer, 

 such small eels abound so much that many of the poorer 

 sort of people that inhabit near to it, take such eels out 

 of this mere with sieves or sheets ; and make a kind of 

 eel-cake of them, and eat it like as bread. And Gesner 

 quotes Venerable Bede,* to say, that in England there is 

 an island called Ely, by reason of the innumerable number 

 of eels that breed in it. But that eels may be bred as 

 some worms, and some kind of bees and wasps are, 



ledge, that Mr. Andrew Young, of Invershin, Sutherlandsh're, has 

 bred them artificially from impregnated spawn, procured from living 

 male and female specimens. E.] 



* The most universal scholar of his time : he was born at Durham 

 about 671, and bred under St. John of Beverley. He was a man of 

 great virtue, and remarkable for a most sweet and engaging disposi- 

 tion : he died 734, and lies buried at Durham. 



