CHAP. XIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 259 



And this Eel, of which I have said so much to yon, 

 may be caught with divers kinds of baits : as namely, 

 with powdered beef; with a lob or garden-worm ; with 

 a minnow ; or, gut of a hen, chicken, or the guts of 

 any fish; or with almost any thing, for he is a greedy- 

 fish*. But the Eel may be caught, especially, with a 

 little, a very little Lamprey, which some call a Pride, 

 and may, in the hot months, be found many of them in 

 the river Thames, and in many mud-heaps in other 

 rivers ; yea, almost as usually as one finds worms in a 

 dung-hill. 



Next note, that the Eel seldom stirs in the day, but 

 then hides himself; and, therefore, he is usually 

 caught by night, with one of these baits of which I 

 have spoken , and may be, then, caught by laying 

 hooks, which you are to fasten to the bank or twigs of 

 a tree or, by throwing a string cross the stream ; 

 with many hooks at it, and those baited with the afore- 

 said baits ; and a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown 

 into the river with this line, that so you may in the morn- 

 ing, find it near to some fixt place, and then, take it 

 up with a drag-hook, or otherwise. But these things 

 are, indeed, too common to be spoken of; and an hour's 

 fishing with any angler will teach you better, both for 

 these and many other common things in the practical 

 part of angling, than a week's discourse. I shall 

 therefore conclude this direction for taking the Eel, by 

 telling you, That, in a warm day in summer, I have 

 taken many a good Eel by Snigling, and have been 

 much pleased with that spot. 



And because you, that are but a young angler, know 



* To this truth, I myself can bear witness. When I dwelt at Twicken- 

 ham, a large canal adjoined to my house, which I stocked with fish. 1 had 

 from time to time broods of ducks, which, with their young ones, took to the 

 water. One dry summer, when the canal was very low, we missed many- 

 young ducks, but could not find out how they went : resolving to make 

 advantage of the lowness of the water to clean the canal, a work which 

 had not been done for thirty years before, I drained and emptied it, and 

 found in the mud a great number of large Eels. Some of them I reserved 

 for the use of my family; which being opened by the cook surprised us all, 

 for, in the stomachs of many of them, were found, undigested, the necks 

 and heads of young ducks, which doubtless were those of the ducks we 

 had missed. The fact seems to have been, that the water being shallow, 

 they became an easy prey, and were pulled under by the Eels, or ifyou will 

 by the beels. 



