CHAPTER XII 



To the title-page of The Art of Angling improved 

 in all its parts, especially Fly-Fishing. By Richard 

 Bowlker. Worcester, Printed by M. Oliver in High 

 St., no date is affixed, but in the copy in the 

 Bodleian Library, the date 1747 is written on the 

 title-page, and this date is inserted, in brackets, in 

 the library Catalogue. 



With the exception of the two passages quoted 

 below, the fly-fishing portion is the only part of the 

 book of much interest. 



After rejecting the notion that eels are bred by the 

 action of the Sun's rays on the dew, which falls in 

 May and June by the river's side, or that they breed 

 " out of the Corruption of their own Age," the author 

 gives the following observation to prove that eels are 

 viviparous : 



Being acquainted with an elderly woman who had 

 been wife to a miller near fifty years, and much 

 employ'd in the dressing of Eels, 1 ask'd her if she 

 had ever found any Spawn or Eggs in those Eels 



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