THE COiMPLETE ANGLER. 177 



will allow the eel's life to be but ten years, yet he, in his 

 History of Life and Death, mentions a lamprey belonging to the 

 Roman emperor to be made tame, and so kept for almost 

 threescore years ; and that such useful and pleasant observations 

 were made of this lamprey, that Crassus the orator, who kept 

 her, lamented her death.* And we read in Doctor Hakewill, 

 that Hortensius was seen to weep at the death of a lamprey that 

 he had kept long, and loved exceedingly. 



It is granted by all, or most men, that eels for about six months, 

 that is to say, the six cold months of the year, stir not up and 

 down, neither in the rivers nor in the pools in which they usually 

 are ; but get into the soft earth or mud, and there many of them 

 together bed themselves, and live without feeding upon any- 

 thing, as I have told you some swallows have been observed 

 to do in hollow trees for those cold six months ; and this the 

 eel and swallow do, as not being able to endure winter weather : 

 for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that in the year 1125, that 

 year's winter being more cold than usually, eels did by nature's 

 instinct get out of the water into a stack of hay in a meadow 

 upon dry ground, and there bedded themselves, but yet at last a 

 frost killed them. And our Camden relates, that in Lanca- 

 shire fishes were digged out of the earth with spades, where no 

 water was near to the place. I shall say little more of the eel, 

 but that, as it is observed, he is impatient of cold ; so it hath 

 been observed, that in warm weather an eel has been known to 

 live five days out of the water. 



And lastly, let me tell you that some curious searchers into 

 the nature of fish observe, that there be several sorts or kinds 

 of eels, as the silver eel, and green or greenish eel, with which 

 the river of Thames abounds, and those are called grigs ; and 

 a blackish eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than ordi- 



* Walton alludes to the story told in Lord Bacon's Apothegms (215), of 

 Crassus retorting upon Domitius, who ridiculed him for weeping over a 

 pet muraena of his which had died—" That's more than you did for 

 both your wives." Plutarch {De Soler. Anim.) says it was a mullet, and 

 that Domitius had buried three wives. The reader will perceive the ana- 

 chronism into which Walton has fallen by confounding Domitius with the 

 Emperor Domitian. The fish belonged to Crassus himself. — Am. Ed. 



9+ 



