DOWN STREAM 



times this is true indeed, for the black- 

 coated one may weigh a pound or two 

 and double your birch rod into a good 

 half-circle before he lets go his grip on 

 the water. 



When you get down to the horn- 

 pouts you have fishing indeed, but all 

 the time the climax of your day's career 

 is lurking down in the cavernous depths 

 where the stream has gullied far be- 

 neath the ledge, for there, as thick as 

 your wrist and three feet long, weighing 

 a pound to the foot of solid white flesh 

 and muscle, is an eel. 



The eel is the strange misanthrope of 

 the brooks and fresh-water ponds. You 

 may peer into the sunlit shallows and 

 see the other fishes at their work or 

 play. They are companionable. If 

 you will live on the pond edge you may 

 train the minnows, the sunfish, the yel- 

 103 



