1 8 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK. 



In Scotland eels are looked upon with abhor- 

 rence, consequently eel fisheries may be said 

 not to exist there. In Ireland, however, the eel 

 fisheries are enormously valuable ; the eel weirs 

 on the Erne are said to bring in five or six 

 thousand pounds sterling a year. At Balliso- 

 dare the eel fisheries were found to be greatly 

 increased in value by the hanging of loosely- 

 plaited ropes of straw or hay over any ob- 

 structions likely to bar the course of the 

 elvers up stream. The ropes act as ladders, up 

 which the elvers safely climb, and the immense 

 annual destruction we have already spoken of 

 is thus averted. 



Eels cost but little to cultivate, never fail to 

 find a good market, and are one of the richest 

 and most nutritious forms of food possible to 

 have. The late Frank Buckland showed his 

 usual good sense when he declared that the 

 English eel fisheries were not half developed, 

 and that they deserved considerably more at- 

 tention than they had hitherto got. That they 

 should soon get this attention must be the hope 

 of all those who do not like to see the good 

 gifts of nature contemptuously thrown away. 



