28o 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



the river. Driving the poles in the mud at the 

 stems and sterns of their boats, the men make them 

 fast, and taking their seats proceed to " bob " for 

 eels. A quantity of earthworms are strung on 

 worsted, and, after being weighted, are suspended 

 by a stout line from a short, tlu'ck rod. The soli- 

 tary fisherman holds a rod in each hand, on either 

 side of the boat, just feeling the bottom with the 

 bait, and now and then pulling it up, and shaking 

 the eels, whose teeth get entangled in the worsted, 

 into the boat. There he sits, silent and un- 

 communicative, the greater part of the night, and 

 in all weathers, for the sake, perhaps, of, on an 

 average, a shilling's worth of eels each night. 

 Altogether his berth must be a lonely one, and 

 no angler will grudge him his sport. His com- 

 panions take up their positions too far off to hold 

 conversation with him, and the splash of a water- 

 rat among the reeds, or the flapping of the canvas 

 of a belated wherry, and the cheery good-night of 

 its steersman, are the only sounds to beguile the 

 tedium of his midnight watching. 



Another mode of capturing eels is by "eel- 

 picking," in the lower waters of the Yare, near 

 Cantley. The man, armed with an eel-spear, takes 

 his stand in the bow of his craft, and, stealing 

 along by the edge of the reeds, plunges his spear 

 at random in the mud. He uses it also as 

 the means of propelling his tiny boat. We have 

 seen four or five such boats following each other 









