38 Wild Life in Wales 



and obliquely set on, contour both above and below 

 abruptly convex. 



Eels (Llysowen\ as might be expected, are both numerous 

 and attain to large dimensions, individuals exceeding 7 Ibs. 

 in weight being talked of. I sometimes saw very large 

 ones, in the summer evenings, making their way from the 

 lake into the Lliw, where the feeding is sometimes gross, 

 owing to the garbage thrown into it. Some of them 1 

 computed to be quite 5 or 6 Ibs. in weight, but, not having 

 any tackle with me, they were not fished for, and I could 

 never prevail upon any of the natives who were perch 

 fishing at the mouth of the river to allow their bait to be 

 gorged by them : Eels seeming to be held in even greater 

 aversion here than in Scotland, and that is saying a good 

 deal. More than once I threw small fish in front of these 

 large Eels and watched them seized and swallowed after 

 the customary shaking. It is, indeed, astonishing how 

 large a bait an eel can swallow, but its jaws are so powerful 

 that it has no trouble in crushing any large mouthful into 

 convenient shape. 



In one place, below the village, I noticed where Eels had 

 been visiting the dead body of a fowl, lying on the bank 

 some yards away from the water's edge, for several nights 

 in succession, till it was, in fact, in a very unsavoury 

 condition indeed. I have heard professional eel-catchers 

 say that their traps were unavailing unless they kept the 

 baits untainted ; but the above was not the only occasion on 

 which I have had similar evidence that, sometimes at any 

 rate, the eel does not object to decidedly " high " food. 



