258 I^ACT AGAINST FICTION. 



can cut off a portion of the tail till you reduce 

 your bait to the desired length. Supposing the 

 pike fisherman goes on a visit to strange waters, 

 or to friends who have not the means of pro- 

 curing good bait, he should take with him three 

 or four small eels, salted, in a box, which will keep 

 perfectly sweet, and enable him to fish in any 

 water which may be put at his command. 



But to return to the lamperne. All these fish, in 

 the instance alluded to, were ascending, from the 

 direction of the sea, to breed, in the same enormous 

 multitude that the eels descended in for the same 

 purpose ; only, in the instance of the lamperne, we 

 have direct evidence of their especial purpose, for, 

 unlike the eels, the fish are full of ova, or spawn. 

 Thinking that, perhaps, in London I should be able 

 to find a sale for lampernes, I caught, and kept 

 alive, an immense quantity of them, putting tliem 

 into a pound with a stream running through it, 

 which I kept for eels at the lower weir. I could, 

 however, obtain no demand for these fish in 

 London, and they were useless to me, excc2)t for 

 my own table, or for burial at the roots of trees. 



One other peculiarity which I observed with 

 regard to these lampernes was, that though con- 



