Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 221 



through which the river Mincius runs ; at the 

 iflue whereof everie yere about the moneth of 

 Odober, when the Autumne ftar Arclurus, 

 whereby the lake is troubled as it were with a 

 winter ftorme and tempeft, a man fhall fee rolling 

 amongft the waves a wonderfull number of thefe 

 Yeels wound and tangled one within another ; in- 

 fomuch as in the leapweeles and weernets devifed 

 for the nonce to catch them in this river, there be 

 found fometime a thoufand of them wrapped 

 together in one ball." After the merriment which 

 fuch a ftory is liable to excite has abated, it is 

 worth while turning to a book juft publifhed by a 

 fifherman who has carefully ftudied the habits of 

 eels in the Broads of Norfolk. " A very curious 

 phenomenon," he fays, " is fometimes obfervable 

 in the upper waters of the Yare and Waveney : 

 the eels come down in large folid balls from one 

 to two feet in diameter, heads infide and tails out ; 

 and thefe living balls roll down the river, and 

 plump into the nets with fuch force as to carry 

 them away, for which reafon the eel-fimers at the 

 mills dread their coming. We cannot even guefs 

 at the caufe of this fingular eel-freak." 1 



The Echeneis, of courfe, is fabled by Pliny to 

 ftay mips ; "for that caufe alfo it hath but a bad 

 name in matters of love, for inchanting as it were 

 both men and women. Moreover, it hath this 

 vertue, being kept in fait, to draw up gold that is 

 fallen into a pit or well, being never fo deep, if it is 



1 "The Broads of Norfolk," p. 216. Blackwood, 1883. 

 By G. C. Davies. 



