MARTENS, POLECATS, WEASELS, STOATS 191 



at home ; and he is so too in the marshlands. He 

 can find food there in the greatest abundance ; game 

 of all kinds, poultry when he can get it, rats, mice, 

 birds, and fish at any risk. His fishing accomplish- 

 ments have been specially remarked ; why, I do not 

 know, for many other animals will kill and eat fish ; 

 the domestic dog and cat, also the fox and the whole 

 of the weasel tribe do it. He varies his diet, as all 

 creatures like to do. During the hot summer nights 

 the eels lie half out of the dykes on the wet margins ; 

 it is easy for him to get one when the dew is thick 

 on the grass, and it is rarely otherwise in the marshes. 

 The eels will crawl from one dyke to another like so 

 many snakes. One bite at the back of the neck, 

 enough to stupefy but not to kill, he gives ; and he 

 packs his fish with other things that are intended for 

 his larder, as he has a family to provide for at that 

 season. Some may ask how he gets eels in winter. 

 Easily enough ; any eel-spearer and I must plead 

 guilty to having joined in that sport can tell you. 



The dykes at the flow of the tide are filled daily ; 

 if all goes well the eels bury themselves in the mud, 

 but if ice has formed, some of them are carried along 

 on the top of the ice instead of underneath it; and 

 these, when the tide ebbs, get numb with cold. 

 Eels will also gather at the air-holes where some of 



