AND OF STILL WATERS. 15 



end and in the middle, and garnished with baited 

 hooks one yard apart. " Sniggling," immortalized 

 by Mr. Burnand in his " Happy Thoughts," 

 is one of the most favourite ways of catching 

 eels, while " Stitchering," a Hampshire method, 

 is perhaps one of the most amusing, though the 

 stitcherer probably catches fewer eels than any 

 other eel-hunter. The only apparatus used is an 

 old sickle, worn short and chipped so as to present 

 something of a saw-like edge. This is tied 

 firmly on to a light pole about twelve feet long. 

 Armed with this the stitcherer betakes himself 

 to the water meadows. In the wide deep 

 drains used for irrigation eels abound j and the 

 object of the stitcherer is to thrust the sickle 

 under the eel's body, and, with a sudden hoist, 

 to land him on the bank, from which he is 

 transferred to the bag. That you have every 

 chance, when on a stitchering party, of having 

 your eye poked out, or your ear sawn off, of 

 course only adds the necessary amount of 

 danger and pleasurable excitement, without 

 which all sport is tame. 



Of all forms of eel capture, however, there is 

 none to compare to spearing, of which there are 



