VORACITY OF EELS. 233 



go beyond your water ; and you will have a more suc- 

 cessful day of it, if you wait till your neighbour below 

 has sunned his water. If the river continues low for 

 some time, disturbed fish will be continually coming 

 forward, and you may go over your water two or three 

 times at different periods, till you have caught nearly 

 every fish that takes up his seat in it. 



If a salmon gets off your leister wounded, being 

 weak, you may be sure he will go down the river; 

 and the eels will come out instantly, if it be hot 

 weather, and follow the blood : if the fish is badly 

 wounded, although not dead, the said eels will soon 

 settle the matter, and eat out his flesh, leaving the skin 

 alone for speculators to make mermaids with.* You 

 will see the eels by dozens hanging thick on him like 

 the sticks in a bundle of faggots ; but they are too 

 small to be taken with a salmon spear, and do not 

 resemble the fine silver eels in the Kennet and some 

 of our English streams, but are browner in colour, and 

 have large heads. The Scotch have a strong antipathy 

 to them, and never use them for food. But they should 

 be removed from the river if possible, as they make 

 great havoc in the spawning beds. 



This information having been briefly given, Mr. 

 Tintern went up the river with his fishing-rod, as the 

 sky was not yet clear enough for the main sport : after 



* Some people will remember an exhibition of this sort many years 

 ago in St. James's Street, in London. It was very ingeniously 

 constructed, though far from alluring. It was placed under a glass, 

 and created some sensation amongst the naturalists, as mermaids 

 ouirlit to do. 



