AND OF STILL WATERS. 17 



Anguilla comes up writhing on the twelve close- 

 set teeth of the sun-spear, or the spearer has 

 taken a header into ten feet of water. If he is a 

 tyro at the apparently simple art of sun-spearing, 

 it may safely be prognosticated that, when he 

 makes acquaintance with the eel he is after, the 

 meeting will be more likely to take place under 

 water than above it. 



Eels have the immense merit in the eyes of 

 all careful people that they more than repay any 

 cultivation bestowed upon them. There is 

 always a demand for eels, and they seem never 

 to be out of season. The London market is 

 chiefly supplied from Holland, the eels being 

 brought over alive in welled vessels. Queen 

 Elizabeth gave a free mooring to these Dutch 

 skoots, and this privilege has been taken 

 advantage of up to the present time. The 

 Dutch eels, however, are very much inferior in 

 flavour to the English, and it seems, therefore, 

 somewhat a pity that they should have almost a 

 monopoly of the London Market. The Norfolk 

 eels, caught in such huge quantities, are nearly 

 all sent to Birmingham and the Black Country. 



