chap, xiii.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 189 



young goslings bred by the sun's heat and the 

 rotten planks of an old ship, and hatched of trees ; 

 both which are related for truths by Du Bartas and 

 Lobel, and also by our learned Camden, and labo- 

 rious Gerard in his Herbal. 



It is said by Rondeletius, that those Eels that are 

 bred in rivers that relate to or be nearer to the sea, 

 never return to the fresh waters, as the Salmon does 

 always desire to do, when they have once tasted the 

 salt-water ; and I do the more easily believe this, 

 because I am certain that powdered-beef is a most 

 excellent bait to catch an Eel. And though Sir 

 Francis Bacon will allow the Eel's life to be but ten 

 years, yet he, in his " History of Life and Death," 

 mentions a Lamprey belonging to the Roman Em- 

 peror to be made tame, and so kept for almost 

 threescore years : and that such useful and pleasant 

 observations were made of this Lamprey, that Cras- 

 sus the Orator, who kept her, lamented her death. 

 And we read in Doctor Hakewill, that Hortensius was 

 seen to weep at the death of a Lamprey that he had 

 kept long, and loved exceedingly. 



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 any thing, as I have told you some 

 swallows have been observed to do in hollow trees 



