CHAP. XIIL] THE FOURTH DAY. 159 



upon the overflowing of the river Nilus ; or out of the putrefaction 

 of the earth, and divers other ways. Those that deny them to 

 breed by generation, as other fish do, ask, If any man ever saw 

 an Eel to have a spawn or melt ? And they are answered, That 

 they may be as certain of their breeding as if they had seen 

 spawn ; for they say, that they are certain that Eels have all 

 parts fit for generation, like other fish,* but so small as not to 

 be easily discerned, by reason of their fatness ; but that discerned 

 they may be ; and that the He and the She Eel may be distin- 

 guished by their fins. And Rondeletius says, he has seen Eels 

 cling together like dew-worms. 



And others say, that Eels, growing old, breed other Eels out 

 of the corruption of their own age ; which, Sir Francis Bacon 

 says, exceeds not ten years. And others say, that as pearls are 

 made of glutinous dewdrops, which are condensed by the sun's 

 heat in those countries, so Eels are bred of a particular dew, 

 falling in the months of May or June on the banks of some 

 particular ponds or rivers, apted by nature for that end ; which 

 in a few days are, by the sun's heat, turned into Eels : and some 

 of the Ancients have called the Eels that are thus bred, the off- 

 spring of Jove. I have seen, in the beginning of July, in a river 

 not far from Canterbury, some parts of it covered over with young 

 Eels, about the thickness of a straw ; and these Eels did lie on 

 the top of that water, as thick as motes are said to be in the sun : 

 and I have heard the like of other rivers, as, namely, in Severn, 

 where they are called Yelvers ; and in a pond, or mere near unto 

 Staffordshire, where, about a set time in summer, such small Eels 

 abound so much, that many of the poorer sort of people that 

 inhabit near to it, take such Eels out of this mere with sieves or 

 sheets ; and make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it like as 

 bread. And Gesner quotes venerable Bede,f to say, that in 

 England there is an island called Ely, by reason of the innumer- 

 able number of Eels that breed in it. But that Eels may be bred 

 as some worms, and some kind of bees and wasps are, either of 

 dew or out of the corruption of the earth, seems to be made 

 probable by the barnacles and young goslings bred by the sun's 



* That fishes are furnished with parts fit for generation cannot be doubted, since it is 

 a common practice to castrate them. See the method of doing it in Pkilos. Trans, vol. 

 xlviii. part ii. for the year 1754, page 870. H. 



t The most universal scholar of his time : he was born at Durham about 671, and 

 bred under St John of Beverley. It is said that Pope Sergius the First invited him to 

 Rome ; though others say he never stirred out of his cell. He was a man of great 

 virtue, and remarkable for a sweet and engaging disposition : he died in 734, and lies 

 buried at Durham. His works make eight volumes in folio. See his Life in the 

 Biographia Britannica, H. 



