THE EEL. 165 



secure them. Eels are also captured by night- 

 lines and by eel-spears. 



The eel lives long out of the water, and 

 sometimes, during the warm nights of summer, 

 when the dew is on the grass, voluntarily quits 

 the pond or river, and proceeds with an undu- 

 latory motion on land, either in quest of worms 

 and other prey, or in order to gain some other 

 piece of water ; and thus it often happens that 

 meres or ponds become stocked with this fish, 

 though none had been purposely introduced. 

 One of the finest eels we ever saw we caught in 

 a swampy spot, several hundred yards from the 

 river Bollen, in Cheshire ; and we have seen 

 them in the dusk of evening, moving over the 

 wet grass of fields bordering the Severn. 



The eel is extremely voracious ; it preys 

 tapon worms, insects, small fishes, and the eggs 

 of fish ; it also eats vegetable matters, and, as 

 we have more than once seen, will swim about 

 the surface of a pond, nibbling the floating 

 leaves of the water-plants. 



UnHke most fishes, the eel is of slow growth, 



and does not breed until two or three years 



have passed. The common sharp-nosed species 



' attains, sometimes, to a very large size, and 



■ individuals have been occasionally caught 



weighing upwards of twenty pounds. 



