EELS AND LAMPERNES. 255 



customs of tliG eel, I now proceed to deal with a 

 fisli almost as mysterious in its habits, but not so 

 generally known — I mean the lampcrne. This 

 fish, as far as my experience goes, is found in any 

 quantities only in the mouths of rivers where tiie 

 freshets seek the sea. In the Avon, near Christ- 

 church, in spring, they ascend in continual shoals 

 of countless multitudes. So thick and phalanxed 

 is their line of aqueous march up the river, that 

 you may stand on the bank with a common 

 minnow-net suspended from a pole when it is dark, 

 and lift them from the river as fast as you can put 

 the net in and pull it out again. In a similar 

 way you may set eel-nets, wire traps, if made 

 close enough to retain the lesser lamperne, without 

 bait, the mouths of the traps being set down 

 stream, as if for snigs, and close to the bank in 

 the line of the ascending shoals. 



In the upper weir on the Avon, when I lived 

 at Winkton, these curious fish came most within 

 my command. They came to ascend the weir so 

 massed together, that from the weight of the 

 pressure from without, the fisli next to the bank 

 were driven, forced into, and wedged up in the 

 rats' holes that were beneath the surface of the 



