THE EEL. 363 



" bobbing " the experienced and watchful angler will spot more fish than 

 the tyro. Moral. Learn by observation to detect the almost impercep- 

 tible indentations which form the breathing holes of eels. 



And here, in conclusion, a word may fitly be said in reference to the 

 bubbles which often arise from mud, stones, and deep water. Even old 

 anglers will aver with confidence that they proceed from fish. In some 

 instances this may be so, but in the very great majority it is not. They 

 commonly are bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen gas generated beneath 

 the surface of the ground by some sort of chemical action probably the 

 decomposition of organic matter and held till no longer of a quantity 

 admitting it, by capillary attraction to its surroundings, be they stones, 

 sticks, or any of the indescribable flotsam and jetsam forming the 

 bottoms of lakes and rivers. Indeed the quantity of this gas which 

 is generated in some localities, where much vegetation enters or exists 

 in the water, is very notable. Let anyone bore a hole in the bottom of a 

 zinc pail, insert therein a gas burner or tobacco pipe, and having filled 

 it inverted with water, stir up the mud beneath with a pole till it is filled 

 with gas, then testify to the truth of my statement. By pressure on the 

 top of this extemporised gasometer, a jet of gas may be burned at pipe 

 or burner's end of a brilliancy certainly nearly that of the inferior 

 rubbish which is supplied by gas companies, and supposed to be properly 

 carburetted hydrogen. 



Sometimes, of course, an eel and sometimes even a pike will, however, 

 expire in atmospheric air laden with carbonic acid gas, but that is under 

 actual pressure, in the form of pain or great physical discomfort. In 

 nine cases out of ten the bubbles arising from the water or submerged 

 earth are due to the natural formation and liberation of gas. 



Speaking of the capture, &c., of eels, Dame Berners thus says : "The 

 ele is a quasy fysshe, a ravenour and a devourer of the brode of fysshe. 

 And, for the pyke also is a devourer of fysshe, I put them bothe behynde 

 all others to angle. For this ele ye shall fynde an hole in the grounde of 

 the water, and it is blewe-blackysshe there, put in your hoke tyll that it 

 be a fote wythin ye hole, and your bayte shall be a grete angyll twytch, 

 a worme, or a menow." 



The sharp-nosed eel (Anguilla acutirostris) is the most abundant and 

 most delicate of the eels, and is chiefly taken in the Irish fisheries. All 

 our rivers may be said to produce it, and it is known on all the shores 

 .of the Mediterranean, so far east as Greece. Dr. Badham gives a most 

 .amusing account of the eel market of Naples, where the fish is an article 

 of commerce of especial prominence. 



In Anguilla Acutirostris, the head is compressed, the top convex, 

 depressed as it slopes forward ; the eye small, placed immediately over 



