chap, xiii.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 191 



then little live Eels no bigger nor longer than a 

 pin : and I have had too many testimonies of this 

 to doubt the truth of it myself ; and if I thought it 

 needful I might prove it, but I think it is needless. 



And this Eel, of which I have said so much to 

 you, may be caught with divers kinds of baits : as 

 namely, with powdered-beef ; with a lob, or garden- 

 worm ; with a minnow ; or gut of a hen, chicken, 

 or the guts of any fish ; or with almost any thing, 

 for he is a greedy fish. But the Eel may be caught, 

 especially, with a little, a very little Lamprey, which 

 some call a Pride, and may in the hot months be 

 found many of them in the river Thames, and in 

 many mud-heaps in other rivers ; yea, almost as 

 usually as one finds worms in a dunghill. 



Next note, that the Eel seldom stirs in the day, 

 but then hides himself ; and therefore he is usually 

 caught by night, with one of these baits of which 

 I have spoken, and may be then caught by laying 

 hooks, which you are to fasten to the bank, or 

 twigs of a tree ; or by throwing a string cross the 

 stream with many hooks at it, and those baited 

 with the aforesaid baits ; and a clod, or plummet, 

 or stone, thrown into the river with this line, that 

 so you may in the morning find it near to some 

 fixed place, and then take it up with a drag-hook 

 or otherwise. But these things are, indeed, too com- 

 mon to be spoken of, and an hour's fishing with 

 any Angler will teach you better both for these 

 and many other common things in the practical 



