• EELS AND ELOUNDERS. 139 



in the bank, or in the brickwork of an old wall, or among the 

 piles and old rotten wood of a landing-stage ; and sniggling an 

 old eel out of these places, when the weather is hot, and other 

 fish refuse to feed, is not bad fun. Eels are caught in various 

 ways : in baskets, bucks, hives, &c. , &c., and when they are run- 

 ning they are caught in very great quantities in the nets. Mr. 

 Thorpe, at the Water Mill, Newark, once took three tons in 

 his nets in a single night, a most extraordinary catch. It 

 was a few years ago, and the catch has not been equalled 

 there, either before or since. Eels are for the most part noc- 

 turnal fish, and it is at night that they do their " running," 

 and that the big ones are caught. Some aver that the eel 

 will travel over land, from one pond or lake to another, and a 

 correspondent, recently writing to the Fishing Gazette, said 

 that an old fisherman told him that the eels came out of the 

 river during the night, and picked up the worms on the 

 grass. He was further assured that the fisherman had seen 

 them scuttling back again into the river, on his approach. 

 Now I should suppose that the " old fisherman " was poking 

 fun at that writer, for I must confess that I have been by the 

 river side all hours, night and day, under all sorts of circum- 

 stances, i.e. when it rained, when a very heavy dew was 

 falling, and when very fine, — in moonlight, starlight, or dark- 

 ness, — and I have never yet met an eel on his cross-country 

 journey, nor have I disturbed any, when they have been worm- 

 ing. Furthermore, I never yet met anybody who could 

 positively say they had done so. Large eels are not often 

 caught with rod and line, though odd ones sometimes are 

 picked up by angling, when the water has been very much 

 discoloured. As I said before, they " run " at night, and 

 they choose the darkest nights for this. Night-liners very 

 seldom set their lines during the bright moonlight. These 

 night-lines consist of several yards of very strong string 

 with ten or a dozen hooks on each, fastened about a yard 



