38 NOTES TO THE 



is very soft. lu severe winters they are found sometimes in 

 numbers close to London ; there were some in Highgate Cemetery 

 last year and the year before ; they feed on a species of fir-cones 

 growing in the cemetery. When some fir-trees were cut down 

 near Weybridge, several old nests of crossbills were found in 

 them ; it is rare to get the young ; they breed in the Hartz 

 Mountains ; they are very fond of the horn-beam seed, which 

 seeds before leafing. They arc, remarkably tame birds. 



EELS, p. 35. How TO CATCH EELS. In the autumn floods 

 the eels descend in vast numbers to the sea. They run best 

 on stormy nights, especially when there is thunder about. I 

 have heard a story of an old fisherman who lived by his eel- 

 trap. The eels woiild not run freely, so he got a drum and sat 

 up all night tapping upon it. When asked what he was doing. 

 he replied that he was playing the drum to make the eels 

 believe it was thunder. 



E. Poole writes me: "The following dodge may be useful to 

 many gentlemen who own large ponds. A simple way to catch eels 

 is to take a corn-sack, turn down a hem, and run a line round 

 at the mouth. Drop a sheep's paunch into the sack, and fill up 

 with straw as tight as possible. Sink it in the pond or river. 

 The eels work through the straw to the end. By drawing 

 the sack up by the cord, it is closed, and you have your eels 

 bagged." 



Another good plan is to put a large barrel under the fall 

 which takes off the overflow from the pond in the autumn-time, 

 when the eels are migrating. Bore plenty of small holes in the 

 tub these will let the water go out, but not the eels. 



The largest eels in my collection (casts, of course) are 

 Tewkesbury, 7 Ibs.. Yarmouth, 71bs. and filbs. Serpentine 

 London, 6 Ibs. 



STATUES AT OXFORD, p. 36. My father's museum of geology 

 was formerly situated in the Clarendon Buildings, close to 

 the Theatre, where the Commemoration of founders and bene- 

 factors is held. Upon the top of this building there are figures 

 of the Muses cast in lead. I find the following interesting 

 verses in reference to these in a book called " Strephon's 

 Revenge : a Satire on the Oxford Toasts," written in the reign 

 of George I., 1718. The author, after bewailing the bad poetry 

 written in those days, writes 



" Nor is it strange, but rightly weigh the thing, 

 That our soft bards so indolently sing, 

 Or that the genius of the place is dead, 

 When our inspiring Muses breathe in lead : 



