THE SAND-EEL AND LAUNCE. 191 



necessary to repeat it here. These little fish have a wide range, 

 being found all round our coasts, those of France, Holland, 

 Heligoland, Norway, North America, and possibly elsewhere in 

 congenial situations. Their capture with the seine is fully de- 

 scribed at pp. 74 and 228. Sometimes an iron rake is used to 

 take them in loose sand, at others a small hook like a sickle or 

 reap-hook, with a very blunt but jagged edge, that it may hold 

 them without cutting them in two, which it will most assuredly 

 do if the edge be at all thin or sharp. During moonlight nights 

 many ' Launcing parties,' as they are called, are made for a 

 visit to the sands at low spring tides, in summer and autumn, 

 and sometimes quite a ' Saturnalia ' is held. In the island of 

 Jersey, from the abundance of the Sand-Eel, one of the beaches 

 has received the name of * Greve au Langon,' that is, * Sand- 

 Eel Beach.' 



Almost all sea-fish devour them greedily. 



Dipping Sand-Eels on the Surface. At times the Sand- 

 Eels collect in large shoals, and if discovered by the porpoises 

 become so bewildered as apparently to lose all power of escape, 

 either from the porpoises below or the gulls above, the former 

 diving through them and munching them by mouthfuls, the latter 

 dipping down and picking up the little silvery creatures with 

 amazing rapidity. In order to avail themselves of such oppor- 

 tunities, fishermen provide a small meshed landing-net like a 

 pool Shrimp-net, and, sculling up to the shoal, dip the net full 

 to the ring, thus getting a large supply with little trouble. Such 

 opportunities are rare. The small silvery fish known as the 

 Mackerel-Brit may be taken at times in the same manner. 



FRESHWATER EELS. 

 (AngwJ/a.) 



Eels are, I believe, universal in temperate climates, in almost 

 every brook, drain, or tidal pond, on the largest continents or 

 the smallest islands, and as they are frequently used as baits for 

 Whiting-Pollack, and are also taken by Mackerel and Bass, 

 they must not be passed by unnoticed. Those from 4^ to 6 

 inches in length are the best, and the brighter in colour the 



