244 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAT-. 



day. What boy has not set night-lines for this slimy fish, 

 and breathlessly visited them in the early morning ? Who 

 has not been angling contentedly on the bottom and seen 

 his float slowly sucked under by an eel ? And if the eel 

 be lively and playful they are mostly given that way 

 what a scene of confusion follows 1 That which was a line 

 and a float and a fish, has become a writhing knot near the 

 tip of the rod, covered with slime, hopelessly entangled, a 

 bit of the float projecting awkwardly from the midst, and 

 the eel, still bent upon mischief, untying himself a little 

 only to make the knot more complex and more hopelessly 

 inextricable. For downright malignity of purpose the eel 

 is unsurpassable. 



One of my earliest anatomical and physiological obser- 

 vations had an eel for its subject. My parents were 

 staying for the summer holiday at Milford in Hampshire. 

 A little stream ran through the meadow near the cottage ; 

 and therein were eels, and roach, and flounders, and many 

 other things alive and swimming to delight my boyish 

 heart. My bath was converted into an aquarium in which 

 the strangest creatures lived, and, I fear, not unfrequently 

 died. I have subsequently been informed that my room 

 was in a chronic state of unutterable messiness. I had 

 forgotten this fact ; but I remember that I was supremely 

 happy. One evening I brought in three or four small 

 eels, and one of unusual size. My bath was full, I pre- 

 sume ; for these were destined to be eaten. I watched 

 the cook prepare them for the pot. She cut off their 

 heads, which gaped with muscular action. It was then 

 that I tried my physiological experiment. When the big 

 head was gaping its widest, I placed within its jaws that 

 of one of the smaller eels. It was swallowed, and mirabile 

 dictu, emerged from the neck ! From that moment I had 

 no misgivings about Baron Munchausen's horse, whose 



