THE FOURTH DAY continued 

 Of the Eel, and other Fish that want Scales 



CHAPTER XIII 



PISCATOR 



IT is agreed by most men, that the Ee! is a most 

 dainty fish: the Romans have esteemed her the 

 Helena of their feasts ; and some the queen of 

 palate-pleasure. But most men differ about their 

 breeding: some say they breed by generation, as 

 other fish do ; and others, that they breed, as some 

 worms do, of mud ; as rats and mice, and many 

 other living creatures, are bred in Egypt, by the 

 sun's heat when it shines upon the overflowing of 

 the river Nilus ; or out of the putrefaction of the earth, 

 and divers other ways. Those that deny them to . 

 breed by generation, as other fish do, ask, If any 

 man ever saw an Eel to have a spawn or melt ? 

 And they are answered, That they may be as certain 

 of their breeding as if they had seen spawn ; for 

 they say, that they are certain that Eels have all 

 parts fit for generation, like other fish, but so small 

 as not to be easily discerned, by reason of their fat- 

 ness ; 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. 

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