AND OF STILL WATERS. 13 



animal. They are immense devourers of spawn 

 of all kinds of fish. There are certain well- 

 known spawning-grounds in the Norfolk 

 Broads, where the roach and bream collect in 

 vast numbers to spawn in the spring. To 

 these grounds the eels follow in hundreds. Mr. 

 Davies, in his pleasant book on " Norfolk 

 Broads and Rivers," speaks of this, and adds : 

 " You can hear the eels sucking away at the 

 spawn in the weeds; and they gorge themselves 

 to such an extent that they will lie motionless 

 on their backs on the gravel, with distended 

 stomachs ; and when caught by the bab they will 

 frequently die during the night, instead of living 

 for days, as an eel will otherwise do in a boat." 

 There are a good many ways of catching 

 eels ; the commonest, of course, being by the 

 eel-bucks so often to be met with on the Thames. 

 Eel-bucks intended to catch the sharp-nosed or 

 frog-mouthed eels are set against the stream, 

 and are set at night, as those two descriptions 

 of eels feed and run only at night. The snig 

 eel, which is chiefly found in Hampshire, feeds 

 by day ; and fishermen have found by experi- 

 ence that snigs are taken in the eel-bucks only 



