OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL 



bred, the Offspring of Jove. I have seen in the beginning of 

 July, in a river not far from Canterbury, some parts of it 

 covered over with young Eels, about the thickness of a straw ; 

 and these Eels did lie on the top of that water, as thick as 

 motes are said to be in the Sun: and I have heard the like 

 of other rivers, as namely in Severn, where they are called 

 Yelvers, and in a pond or mere near unto Staffordshire, where 

 about a set time in Summer, such small Eels abound so much, 

 that many of the poorer sort of people, that inhabit near to it, 

 take such Eels out of this mere, with sieves or sheets, and 

 make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it like as bread. 

 And Gesner quotes Venerable Bede to say, that in England 

 there is an Island called Ely, by reason of the innumerable 

 number of Eels that breed in it. But that Eels may be bred 

 as some worms, and some kind of Bees and Wasps are, either 

 of dew, or out of the corruption of the earth, seems to be made 

 probable by the Barnacles and young Goslings bred by the 

 Sun's heat, and the rotten planks of an old Ship, and hatched 

 of trees ; both which are related for truths by Du Bartas and 

 Lob el, and also by our learned Camden, and laborious Gerard 

 in his * Herbal.' 



It is said by Rondeletius, that those Eels that are bred in 

 rivers that relate to, or be nearer to the sea, never return to the 

 fresh waters, as the Salmon does always desire to do, when 

 they have once tasted the salt-water; and I do the more 

 easily believe this, because I am certain that powdered beef 

 is a most excellent bait to catch an Eel : and though Sir 

 Francis Bacon 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 Dr. 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 



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