178 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



nary eels ; and also an eel whose fins are reddish, and but sel- 

 dom taken in this nation, and yet taken sometimes : these several 

 kinds of eels are, say some, diversely bred ; as namely, out of 

 the corruption of the earth, and some by dew, and other ways, 

 as I have said to you : and yet it is affirmed by some for certain, 

 that the silver eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning as 

 other fish do, but that her brood come alive from her, being 

 then little live eels, no bigger nor longer than a pin : and I 

 have had too many testimonies of this to doubt the truth of it 

 myself; and if I thought it needful I might prove it, but I think it 

 is needless. 



And this eel, of which I have said so much to you, 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 anything, 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 Tiiames, 

 and in many mud-heaps in other rivers, yea, almost as usually 

 as one finds Avorms in a dunghill. 



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 liave spoken : and may be then 

 caught by laying hooks, wliich 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 aforesaid baits, and 

 a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown into the river with this line, 

 that so you may in the morning find it near to some fixed 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 direc- 

 tien for taking the eel, by telling you, that in a warm day in 

 summer, I have taken many a ijood oel by sniglinir, and have 

 been much pleased with tliat sport. 



And because you that are but a young angler know not what 

 snifrlin"' is, I will now teach it to you. You remember 1 told 



