138 FISHING GOSSIP. 



scientific manner, the periphery of an inverted cone. 

 The muscles of his back and sides are obviously in a 

 state of great excitement ; and to all appearance he 

 seems endeavouring to bore a hole in the bottom of 

 the lake, as if in pursuit of some invisible object. 

 No animal eccentricity I ever witnessed puzzled me 

 more than this spectacle of the eel when I saw it 

 first. Bright on the "Federals" Newdegate on 

 " nunneries" Spurgeon on " dip-candles" or Eoe- 

 buck de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis, could not 

 surprise me half so much. At first I imagined what 

 will not puzzled philosophers imagine to tide over 

 their difficulties ? that the process I witnessed was 

 in some way connected with the generative functions 

 of the animal ; but the thought was no sooner con- 

 ceived than abandoned, on observing that there was 

 no partner near to assist in the offices of reproduction. 

 No vagaries or curiosities of animal generation, 

 " equivocal " or otherwise, that I read for a diploma 

 (which was never of the least use to me after) would 

 exactly meet the case in point. So, like the well- 

 trained spaniel, I made a second cast, and this time 

 concluded that the eel was making a comfortable 

 morning meal on little molluscs, insects, and larvae, 

 that abound on the bottom of lakes ; and not under- 

 going, like a parish pauper, the penal charity of a 

 board of guardians, by making holes and stopping 

 them up again. Our purpose, however, at present is to 



