EARLY DAYS 7 



would serve a double purpose. The eels would 

 be abolished and, if the bed of the pool were left 

 dry for a few months, a plentiful crop of weeds 

 would spring up, and the trout when introduced 

 would start their career with splendid feeding 

 grounds. 



How are you to find out if there are eels in a 

 pond ? Obviously by setting half a dozen night-lines 

 every evening for a week in July or August. Bait 

 them with lobworm, and if there is no sign of a bite 

 and no eel on a hook at the end of the week you may 

 pretty safely conclude that there are no eels in the 

 water. It is not only eels that may escape notice 

 in a pool. I once caught eight pike in a day, and 

 ran a good many others, on a small lake in which, as 

 every one supposed, there were only perch and roach 

 of no great size. On another day I got about a 

 dozen eels there. Of course, the water had hardly 

 ever been fished, or the pike, at any rate, would 

 soon have been noticed, being rather visible objects 

 when basking in hot weather or when on the feed 

 in cold. 



It does not follow that when you have abolished 

 your eels you will have abated the nuisance for ever. 

 Probably others will appear when the pond is filled 

 up again. Elvers can creep in anywhere, and if 

 that be not enough, I have no doubt that mature 

 eels can and will travel overland on dewy or moist 



