54 THE EEL. 



A most exciting sport is eel-spearing, though the 

 spear is plunged blindly into the deep mud. We 

 practised this art long years ago in the fen ditches 

 in Huntingdonshire, and with considerable success. 

 Terrible hard work that eel-spearing is, and the 

 man who can stick to it for a couple of hours may 

 aspire to six shillings a day as a navvy ! In the 

 lakes of Westmeath the process is more scientific, 

 at least requires more skill. On a sunny day the 

 boat floats over the shallows of the lake, and the 

 great eels are detected through the bright clear 

 water, half in, half out of their holes, sitting on the 

 threshold of their houses, as it were, enjoying the 

 fine weather. Spearing them under such circum- 

 stances is very like spearing a trout or salmon as 

 practised in the olden time, a sport in which we 

 have joined, though we suppose we ought to be 

 ashamed to own it. 



Eels run down to sea in the autumn, for the 

 purpose of depositing their spawn, and are then in 

 their best condition. When they return does not 

 appear quite clear ; but the fry, the " eel-fair," as 

 it is called, proceed up the rivers in May, meeting 

 the smolts who are then descending. That eminent 

 naturalist Mr Buckland has stated, in a recent ar- 

 ticle in "Land and Water/' that the smolts devour 

 the young eels ; but I do not think they are open 



