288 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



a Dr. Plot, in his " History of Staffordshire," p. 242, mentions 

 certain waters and a pool that were stocked by eels that had, from 

 waters they liked not, travelled " in arido" or over dry land, to 

 these other. H. 



e Camden's relation is to this effect, viz., " That at a place called 

 Sefton, in the above county, upon turning up the turf, men find a 

 black deadish water, with small fishes therein." " Britannia," Lan- 

 cashire. Fuller, who also reports this strange fact, humorously 

 says, " That the men of this place go a-fishing with spades and 

 mattocks;" adding, that fishes are thus found in the country about 

 Heraclea and Suis, in Pontus. H. 



* To this truth I myself can bear witness. When I dwelt at 

 Twickenham, a large canal adjoined to my house, which I stocked 

 with fish. I had from time to time broods of ducks, which, with 

 their young ones, took to the water. One dry summer, when the 

 canal was very low, we missed many young ducks, but could not 

 find out how they went. Resolving to take advantage of the low- 

 ness of the water to clean the canal, a work which had not been 

 done for thirty years, I drained and emptied it, and found in the 

 mud a great number of large eels. Some of them I reserved for 

 the use of my family, which, being opened by the cook, surprised 

 us all ; for in the stomachs of many of them were found, undigested, 

 the necks and heads of young ducks, which doubtless were those 

 of the ducks we had missed. The fact seems to have been that, 

 the \/ater being shallow, they became an easy prey, and were pulled 

 under by the eels, or, if you will, by the heels* H. 



