AFTERNOON AND EVENING. 35 



quickly as he can. If he dallied it would tie itself 

 and the line into an appalling knot. It has, of 

 course, swallowed the hook, and I advise heroic 

 measures ; let the novice cut the gut with his 

 scissors and push the beast back into the water. It 

 requires a seasoned angler to cope with a small eel 

 and come well out of the combat. The novice has 

 gained his experience cheaply at the price of a 

 hook, for he will know in future what those spas- 

 modic twitchings at his float mean, and he will be 

 able to remove his line from the dangerous spot. 



Where one catches small eels one seldom catches 

 much else. Now and again eels go mad, or seem 

 to do so, and bite with an abandon wholly alien to 

 their usual method. I have several times caught 

 a dozen or more at a sitting, every one of them 

 taking the bait with as much vigour as a perch. 

 But this is not usual. Big eels are not to be 

 despised as fighters, and anything of 2lb. or more 

 gives one a lot of trouble. River eels are also 

 excellent eating, of course, as are the perch which 

 the novice has in his basket, and will do well 

 to have on his breakfast table, cooked in their skins 

 and not scaled. Perch are unpopular with the 

 ordinary English cook because, by reason of some 

 perverse tradition, she thinks it necessary to scale 



them, as laborious a proceeding as plucking a duck. 



D 2 



