382 THE ANGLER-NATUKALIST. 



ducking, he was reluctantly obliged to drop it into the 

 water. His first action afterwards was to give himself a 

 good shake, both to revive his spirits and to rid his coat 

 from the effects of his morning dip ; and then, as before, 

 he resumed his ' contemplative recreation/ As our paths 

 lay differently, I have nothing further to report of his good 

 or evil success." 



In cutting recently through an embankment in a field 

 adjoining the river Lune, for the formation of one of the 

 culverts of the North- Western Railway, the labourers found 

 a collection of between 15 or 201bs. weight of Eels, some 

 quite fresh, and others in the last stage of putrefaction. 

 They varied in size from a quarter to half a pound, and 

 consisted of the common river-Eel and small specimens of 

 the Conger. " As the marks of teeth/' says a gentleman 

 who was present, " were plainly visible on the heads of 

 most of them, it was conjectured they had been destroyed 

 by these weapons, and stored for winter provisions by some 

 animal whose retreat was not far distant. This proved to 

 be the case. On digging a little further, out bounded a 

 matronly rat, with half-a-dozen young ones at her heels. 

 The workmen gave chase, and ultimately succeeded in 

 killing both mother and progeny, with a solitary exception, 

 which took sanctuary in the trunk of a neighbouring tree. 

 The embankment is about a hundred yards from the 

 water's edge, so that it must have required considerable 

 time and labour on the part of the old rat to have dragged 

 the eels thither." 



