Eel. 



THE FOURTH DAY. 



(Continued.') 



CHAPTER XII I. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE EEL, AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES, AND 

 TO FISH FOR THEM. 



Piscator. It is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most 

 dainty fish : the Komans have esteemed her the Helena 01 

 their feasts, and some the queen of palate-pleasure. But 

 most men differ about their breeding : some say they breed 

 by generation as other fish do ; and others, that they breed, 

 as some worms do, of mud; as rats and mice, and many 

 other living creatures, are bred in Egypt, by the sun's heat 

 when it shines upon the overflowing of the river Nilus ; or 

 out of the putrefaction of the earth, and divers other ways. 

 Those that deny them to breed by generation as other fish 

 do, ask, if any man ever saw an eel to have a spawn or 

 melt ? And they are answered, that they may be as certain 

 of their breeding as if they had seen them spawn : for they 

 say, that they are certain that eels have all parts fit for 

 generation, like other fish, 1 but so small as not to be easily 



1 This is erroneous. Fish have no external organs of generation. And 



