88 ANGLING. 



The dace is a very strong fish for his size, and when hooked 

 resembles the trout in his exertions to escape. When numerous, 

 they furnish great amusement, and are well fitted for practising the 

 young artist for his more difficult task of capturing the salmon and 

 trout. 



THE EEL. 



Pew fish are better known than the eel. He is associated in our 

 minds with many of our youthful exploits and troubles in our 

 upward progress to piscatory fame. He frequents all the rivers 

 and waters of Europe, where the cold is not too severe ; and he is 

 to be met with on the most sumptuous as well as on the most frugal 

 tables food alike for the London alderman and the poor houseless 

 man in the streets. 



The haunts of this fish are familiar to every angler. He inhabits 

 all kinds of waters, ponds, lakes, ditches, trout-streams, rivers. No 

 water is too dirty for him, nor too pure. He thrives in the mud- 

 diest holes, and grows fat and sleek among the stones of the 

 mountain torrent. A fresh water fish in all his habits, yet if he 

 gets into the salt water he shows little anxiety to leave it again ; 

 and though it evidently affects his colour, he grows prodigiously in 

 it, and gets as fat as a porpoise. No matter where he may be 

 fishing with a sunk bait, the experienced angler is never surprised 

 when he pulls out an eel. In short, this fish is almost universal, 

 and his attachment to one place rather than another is very prob- 

 lematical. Wherever he can get food, there he is ; nay, indeed, 

 he has been sometimes found in situations where, to all appearance, 

 he could get none. 



Various have been the opinions about the mode in which eels are 

 generated. Writers on fishing, one after the other, recapitulate 

 the old opinions, and nearly in the same words. Some of these 

 opinions are very diverting and curious. We are told that one 

 ancient author supposed they were born of the mud ; another, from 

 little bits scraped off the bodies of large eels, when they rubbed 

 themselves against stones ; another, from the putrid flesh of dead 

 animals thrown into the water ; another, from the dews which 

 cover the earth in May; another, from the water alone; and an 

 old and deep-rooted notion entertained in the north of England at 

 this hour is, that eels are generated from horse-hairs tlirown into 

 the water. 



The following statement wears a reasonable appearance, and will 

 account for the story from Bowlker, quoted in "The Angler's 

 Sure Guide." 



" The eel proceeds from an egg. The egg is hatched in the body 

 of the female, as in fish of the ray species. A slight pressure on 

 the lower part of the body of the female facilitates the egress of the 

 young ones. But, in order that the eggs may be capable of being 

 hatched, there must be some intercourse with the male fish. This 



