IX 

 THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 



THOUGH the Scotch Highlanders are said to have a 

 ^^^ profound objection to eating eels on account of 



the resemblance of these fish to snakes (not a very good 

 reason, since the quality and not the shape of what one 

 eats is the important thing), yet eels have been a very 

 popular delicacy in England in past days. Eel-pie 

 Island, at Richmond, is known to most Londoners, and 

 eel-pie shops were familiar in London less than a century 

 ago. A good Thames eel is still appreciated by the few 

 people who nowadays take some small amount of intelli- 

 gent interest in what they eat. Abroad, eels are still 

 popular. Eel-traps are still worked in the rivers. In such 

 districts as the flat country, on the shores of the Adriatic, 

 near Venice, millions of young eels are annually " shep- 

 herded " in lagoons and reservoirs, and reared to marketable 

 size. The inland eel-fisheries of Denmark and Germany 

 are carefully regulated and encouraged by the Government 

 in those States. 



The fact is that railways, ice-storage, and steam- 

 trawling have, in conjunction, revolutionised our habits 

 in regard to the use of fish as a daily article of diet. 

 Fresh-water fish are now almost unknown as a regular 

 source of food in the British Islands. The splendid fish 

 of the North Sea, the Channel, and the Atlantic coast 

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