74 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



things too nasty for his ravenous appetite. Many 

 years ago, we were present when some schoolboys caught 

 a very large one, which was wriggling about in a pool of 

 water, just above a mill, after the stream had been 

 suddenly run off. Two of them pulled off their clothes, 

 and after a long struggle the fish being so strong and 

 slippery that they could scarcely hold him they succeeded 

 in bundling him on the bank. To our surprise he had a 

 large half-decayed water-rat in his mouth. One-half he 

 had succeeded in swallowing ; but the other was too big 

 for his throat, and remained hanging out of his jaws. 

 The rat was rapidly decomposing ; and in a day or two, if 

 the boys had not spoiled the feast, he would probably, like 

 the boa, have completed his meal. 



Many instances of his voracity have been recorded, but 

 this anecdote we can vouch for. Several individuals are 

 still alive who were present on the occasion ; and should 

 these pages meet their eye, their memory, like our own, 

 will perchance leap back with a feeling of pleasure over a 

 period of thirty years. 



Eels are very abundant in the Seine. In that river 

 there are several varieties of the eel, some of them dis- 

 tinguished for their wondrous voracity; and which de- 

 stroy vast quantities of smelts, shads, and bream. One 

 species is so astonishingly ravenous, that he has obtained 

 from the inhabitants the name of the " dog-eel." The 

 gluttony and voracity of this variety are said to be most 

 extraordinary. 



The flesh of the eel is delicate, white, firm, and, when 

 fed and well-nurtured in favourable waters, truly de- 

 licious. He was interdicted as an article of food by the 

 Jewish law-giver on perfectly intelligible grounds, quite 

 unconnected with his good or bad qualities, as an article 



