76 The North Country Angler. 



at all times of the year, except the middle of 

 winter; and even then, when the river has been 

 frozen very hard; as I remember once at Keeper, 

 near Durham, the mill-dam being broken with 

 the weight of ice laying upon it, the key next to 

 the hospital and gardens was left dry, almost 

 to the foundation, the ice subsiding as the 

 water drained from under it; and abundance 

 of eels crawled out of the wall and lay torpid, 

 as if dead, upon the ice: I got many of them, 

 some large ones ; but neither in these, nor in 

 any that I ever took, could I observe either milt 

 or roe, or any vessel to contain the ovaries, 

 as may be seen in all fish that spawn. It is 

 therefore my opinion, nay I am positive in it, 

 that they are produced by generation, and 

 brought forth alive; for if all the arguments 

 for spontaneous generation, and equivocal pro- 

 duction were strictly examined, they would be 

 found to be vulgar errors, like the raining of 

 frogs ; and the abettors of such opinions might 

 be driven to the dilemma of ignorance or infide- 

 lity. That any animal should be produced in 

 any other way, than that of God's appointment, 

 I mean from animal parents, is a miraculous 

 production, a new creation. And though there 

 are many things in the works of nature, which 

 we cannot account for, yet we may be sure of 

 this, that they are regular and uniform ; that all 

 the species of creatures that God made in the 

 beginning are continued by generation, in conse- 

 quence of that great and universal command, 

 Increase and multiply ; to which end it was, 

 that male and female created he them; 



