136 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



And lastly, let me tell you that some curious searchers into 

 the natures of fish observe that there be several sorts or kinds 

 of eels, as the silver eel, and green or greenish eel, with which 

 the river of Thames abounds, and those are called grigs ; and a 

 blackish eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than ordinary 

 eels; and also an eel whose fins are reddish, and but seldom 

 taken in this nation, and yet taken sometimes: these several 

 kinds of eels are, say some, diversely bred ; as namely, out of 

 the corruption of the earth, and some by dew, and other ways> 

 as I have said to you : and yet it is affirmed by some for certain, 

 that the silver eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning .as 

 other fish do, but that her brood come alive from her, being then 

 little live eels, no bigger nor longer than a pin : and I have had 

 too many testimonies of this to doubt the truth of it myself; and 

 if I thought it needful I might prove it, but I think it is need- 

 less. 



And this eel, of which I have said so much to you, may be 

 caught with divers kinds of baits; as namely, with powdered 

 beef, with a lob or garden-worm, with a minnow, or gut of a hen, 

 chicken, or the guts of any fish, or with almost anything, for he 

 is a greedy fish : but the eel may be caught especially with a little, 

 a very little lamprey, which some call a pride, and may in the 

 hot months be found many of them in the river Thames, and in 

 many mud-heaps in other rivers, yea, almost as usually as one 

 finds worms in a dunghill. 



Next note, that the eel seldom stirs in the day, but then 

 hides himself; and therefore he is usually caught by night, 

 with one of these baits of which I have spoken : and may be 

 then caught by laying hooks, which you are to fasten to the 

 bank, or twigs of a tree ; or by throwing a string across the 

 stream with many hooks at it, and those baited with the 

 aforesaid baits, and a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown into 

 the river with this line, that so you may in the morning find 

 it near to some fixed place; and then take it up with a drag- 

 hook, or otherwise. But these things are, indeed, too common 

 to be spoken of; and an hour's fishing with an angler will 

 teach you better, both for these and many other common things, 



