CHAP. XIII.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. l8l 



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 any- 

 thing, 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 bai^s 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 cross the 

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

 said 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 any Angler will teach 

 you better both for these and many other common things in 

 the practical part of Angling, than a week's discourse. I shall 

 therefore conclude this direction for taking the Eel, by telling 

 you that, in a warm day in summer, I have taken many a good 

 Eel by snigling, and have been much pleased with that sport. 



And because you that are but a young Angler know not 

 what snigling is, I will now teach it to you. You remember I 

 told you that Eels do not usually stir in the daytime, for then 

 they hide themselves under some covert, or under boards or 

 planks about flood-gates, or weirs, or mills, or in holes in the riv- 

 er-banks : so that you, observing your time in a warm day, 

 when the water is lowest, may take a strong, small hook, tied 

 to a strong line, or to a string about a yard long ; and then 

 into one of these holes, or between any boards about a mill, or 

 under any great stone or plank, or any place where you think 

 an Eel may hide or shelter herself, you may, and with the help 



