CHAPTER XIII 



Observations of the Eel, and other Fish that want scales ', 

 and how to Fish for them. 



ISC. It is agreed by most men, that the eel is a 

 most dainty fish ; the Romans have esteemed her 

 the Helena of their feasts, and some the queen of 

 palate-pleasure. But most men differ about their 

 breeding : some say they breed by generation as 

 other fish do, and others, that they breed (as some 

 worms do) of mud ; as rats and mice, and many 

 other living creatures are bred in Egypt, by the sun's heat, when 

 it shines 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, 



185 N 



