THE EEL FAMILY. 381 



parts of Lancashire. When a pond containing Eels is 

 frozen over, a hole is made in the ice, and a small bundle 

 of straw introduced into the water through the aperture, 

 and there left for a day or two, when the Eels, which col- 

 lect in great numbers round the hole for air, creep up into 

 the straw and are drawn out with it. 



During its state of torpidity, other enemies of the Eel, 

 besides man, appear to be particularly active. Rats and 

 Polecats are known to select this period for their attacks, 

 and some of the accounts of their depredations are not a 

 little singular. "In February last," says Mr. Hardy, 

 " when walking by the side of the mill-race at Swalwell, 

 near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, we noticed a common House- 

 rat making its way close by the edge of the water, among 

 the coarse stones that form the embankment. Curious to 

 know what it could be doing there, we watched its pro- 

 gress downwards until it reached the outlet of a drain, into 

 which it had just turned, when it gave a sudden plunge, 

 and as quickly reappeared in the stream with a middling- 

 sized eel in its mouth. It made for the edge, where it 

 soon regained its footing ; a matter, owing to the steepness 

 of the bank, of some difficulty, increased by the struggles 

 of the eel, which it had seized a little above the tail, and 

 which was exerting itself vigorously to get free. The rat 

 attempted to run forward and turn a corner, where, on 

 a broader ledge, he might perhaps have had luck in his 

 fishing; but the desperate efforts of the eel rendered his 

 footing so precarious that, rather than have a second 



