CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 



THE EEL. 



I CLAIM to know more about eels than about any other fresh-water fish. 

 The reader may, therefore, accept what he finds in this chapter, so far as 

 pure observation goes, without reservation. I have opened and thoroughly 

 examined during the last ten years as many, probably more, eels than 

 any other angler, except my father, in the kingdom. Hence I do not 

 consider this little piece of introduction offensively egotistic. 



Naturalists enumerate several species of fresh-water eel. Couch gives 

 four distinct kinds Anguilla Hibernica (the Irish), Angmlla laterostris 

 (the broad-nosed), Angwlla acuterostris (the sharp-nosed), and the 

 ' ' snig ; ' ' and other writers increase the distinctions. Thames fishermen 

 colloquially speak of the silver eel, the slug eel, the golden eel, the grig, 

 and another kind which only travels down stream, and is distinguished 

 by a strongly marked lateral line running from head to tail, as in the 

 cyprinidae. Some of these, however, are, in my opinion, unreliably 

 separated by characteristics for the most part the result only of varying 

 circumstances of existence. After long and careful examination, I have 

 arrived at the conviction that the actually distinct species are three only 

 the acuterostris, the laterostris, and the Hibernica. The structure in 

 each is slightly different, that of the first being more slender and the 

 head more pointed than the second, the skin also being finer. These fish 

 will be particularised further on. The "snig" or "grig" I look upon 

 as only the smaller variety of the ordinary large eel of either sort. 

 Monstrosities in structure occasionally occur. Plumridge, the fisherman, 

 of Windsor, once showed me one with three distinct eyes, one each side, 

 and one on the frontal bone. I may add that Yarrell gives accounts of 

 the following eels : A. acuterostris, A. laterostris, A. mediorostris. 



The form of the fish has created a widespread prejudice against 

 it, and one rarely finds a Scotchman who takes kindly to it. This 



