THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 163 



And this the Eel and Swallow do, as not being able to endure 

 winter weather; for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, " That in 

 the year 1125, (that year's winter being more cold than usually,) 

 Eels did, by nature's instinct, get out of the water into a stack 

 of hay in a meadow upon dry ground, * and there bedded them- 

 selves ; but yet, at last, a frost killed them." And our 

 Camden relates, that, in Lancashire, fishes were digged out of 

 the earth with spades, where no water was near to the place. f 

 I shall say little more of the Eel, but that, as it is observed he 

 is impatient of cold, so it hath been observed that, in warm 

 weather, an Eel has been known to live five days out of the 

 water. 



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 Lels ; 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 

 a 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 needless. 



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 any 

 thing, for he is a greedy fish.J But the Eel may be caught, 



of uniform breadth, as if it had been regulated by the parallel lines of a 

 mathematician. The length pf this column 1 had no means of ascertaining, 

 but it must have been considerable, as I traced it for more than half a niih- ; 

 and during several hours which I observed it, the run continued undimi- 

 nished, and proceeded at a Telocity, as nearly as I could estimate by the 

 eye, of half a mile or more in the hour. The whole column mut nave 

 consisted of countless millions of Eels. J. R. 



* Dr Plot, in his Histmy of Staffordshire, page 242, mention* 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. 



f 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, Lancashire. Fuller, who also 

 reports this strange fact, humorously says, " That the men of this place 

 iro a-fishing with spades and mattocks ; adding, that fishes are thus found 

 in the country about Heraclea and Tius, in Pontus." Worthies, in Lanca* 

 thire, 107. 



t To this truth I myself can bear witness. When I dwelt at Twicken- 

 ham, a large canal adjoined to my house, which I stocked with fish. I had 



