36 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



to swimme through weedes, grasse, rushes, straw, or 

 any such like thing that is in the pond, wherein she 

 being intangled and wearied with their chasing, they 

 find opportunitie to joyne in copulation with her, 

 mingling their milt with her spawne, sometime one 

 of them, sometime another, at which time the spawne 

 falleth from her like little egges, and sticketh fast to 

 the sayd weedes : some eight, nine, or ten dayes after 

 which time it quickneth, taketh life, and hath the 

 proportion of a fish : yea two or three dayes before it 

 quicken, if you take such an egge and breake it uppon 

 your naile, you shall perceive the proportion of a fish 

 therein. After it is quicke it mooveth very little for 

 some fortnight or three weekes, and then it gathereth 

 together into sculles by the shore side, where the 

 water is shallow : howbeit the Tench frie will lie 

 scattering in the weedes, and not flote in sculles. 



It is generally stated that the migration of the eel 

 was not properly described until the eighteenth 

 century : it is therefore surprising to find Taverner, 

 in 1600, giving a clear description of this 

 phenomenon. 



The method of generation of the eel is one of great 

 interest, on account of the remarkable theories which 

 have from time to time been propounded in regard to 

 it. I have, therefore, in the course of this book drawn 

 attention to the different opinions held on this point 

 by the old angling writers. 



Among other theories the following methods of 

 generation of this fish have at different times been 

 described. Oppian held that eels were bred from the 

 slime on their bodies, Aristotle believed that they 

 sprang from the mud, Pliny thought that they 



