362 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



cause. At the extremity of the line I saw a large barn-rat, so securely 

 hooked that it could not move its head with any chance of gnawing the 

 line asunder, if it so desired. Rather higher up the line, I beheld a 

 moor-hen threaded quite through its throat, and above that the bait. 

 These were so curiously in connection that I was quite a long time in 

 theoretically solving the puzzle. At last I arrived at this conclusion : The 

 moorhen had taken the eel bait (as I have known moorhens repeatedly to 

 do) , and whilst thus hooked the rat had assailed it, and on biting vora- 

 ciously through the throat of the bird had become impaled. It is a 

 known fact that the barn-rat is quite capable of such a deed of villainy. 

 The other little episode is equally singular. On visiting a line set under 

 a drooping oak tree, whose branches almost touched the water, I was 

 surprised to find an eel, of nearly a pound in weight, high up in its 

 branches. How it got there, goodness only knows. There were three 

 available suppositions. One, that some one threw it there ; the next, 

 that a heron had lodged it there ; and, finally, that it had climbed the 

 tree or branches itself. The two former were unlikely, for many reasons. 

 The latter, excepting its unlikelihood in the idea of eels climbing, really 

 seemed the most ready solution of the difficulty, for on the grass beneath 

 the tree and on the branches referred to, as well as those leading to the 

 position in which it was found, could be seen the unmistakeable slime ; 

 and the Gordian knots in which it had enveloped itself and its support 

 were indicatory, surely, of such an acrobatic feat. Anyhow, there the 

 fish was, with the line knotted inextricably, and itself choked. The only 

 direct branch from the water's surface was entwined with the line, and I 

 can only suppose that this gymnastic member of the slippery family 

 sprang from the water over the bough, and, finding itself suspended, by 

 means of its ever ready tail and remarkable perseverance, it performed 

 the feat which I have related. 



There are some persons who think that eel fishing by any means is 

 allowable. Probably it is, because being a fish given to deeds during the 

 darkness, and shunning as it does the frankness of daylight, it, like the 

 owl and cat, may be said to be a night prowler and mysterious, and not 

 amenable to ordinary rules of sport. For such sportsmen there yet 

 remains the eel-spear to be referred to. This instrument, many pronged 

 and barbed, will, with the rest of the engines of destruction, be pour- 

 trayed in the section treating of tackle, and therefore I will only refer 

 to its most favourable use here. This depends greatly on weather, but 

 it may be said that usually on clear, but sultry days, a good basket may 

 be obtained by suddenly plunging the prongs into the mud wherein the 

 fish is suspected. Of course the exact spot is to some extent dependent 

 for its determination on the result of the prod, but as in the case of 



