THE COMPLETE ANGLER 181 



It is granted by all, or most men, that eels, for about 

 six months, that is to say, the six cold months of the year, 

 stir not up and down, neither in the rivers, nor in the 

 pools in which they usually are, but get into the soft 

 earth or mud ; and there many of them together bed 

 themselves, and live without feeding upon anything, 

 as I have told you some swallows have been observed 

 to do in hollow trees, for those cold six months ; and this 

 the eel and swallow do, as not being able to endure 

 winter weather : for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that 

 in the year 1125, that year's winter being more cold 

 than usually, eels did by nature's instinct get out of the 

 water into a stack of hay in a meadow upon dry ground, 

 and there bedded themselves, but yet at last a frost 

 killed them. And our Camden relates, that in Lancashire 

 fishes were digged out of the earth with spades, where 

 no water was near to the place. I shall say little more 

 of the eel, but that, as it is observed, he is impatient of 

 cold ; so it hath been observed, that in warm weather 

 an eel has been known to live five days out of the water. 



And lastly, let me tell you that some curious searchers 

 into the natures of fish observe, that there be several 

 sorts or kinds of eels, as the silver eel, and green or 

 greenish eel, with which the River of Thames abounds, 

 and those are called grigs ; and a blackish eel, whose head 

 is more flat and bigger than ordinary eels ; and also an 

 eel whose fins are reddish, and but seldom taken in this 

 nation, and yet taken sometimes : these several kinds of 

 eels are, say some, diversely bred ; as namely, out of the 

 corruption of the earth, and some by dew, and other 

 ways, as I have said to you : and yet it is affirmed by 

 some for certain, that the silver eel is bred by generation, 

 but not by spawning as other fish do, but that her brood 



these words : " Foolish Crassus ! you wept for your mursena " 

 (or lamprey). " That is more," retorted Crassus, " than you did for 

 your two wives." (Lord Bacon's Apophthegms.) H. 



