THE EEL. 279 



cording to the tide or current ; see that all your tackle be 

 strong, and you are rigged. If in fresh water, bait with worms, 

 pieces of fish, frogs, entrails of chicken ; for salt water, pieces 

 of clams, fish, shrimp, or anything else you think they will 

 fancy. The largest and oldest of the family snake along the 

 muddy bottom at night, and perhaps accommodating you with 

 a bite, will allow you to draw them up, of a size such as may 

 trouble your dreams. Some salt water anglers take them with 

 shedder crab and shad roe, after the following manner ; they 

 procure some white horse hairs, and work them into the shape 

 of a bag, and within place their bait, or wind them thoroughly 

 around a good size bait. They attach this to a hand line, with 

 a sinker of sufficient weight to sink it to the bottom. The Eel 

 takes hold, and soon entangles his teeth in the mesh of the bag, 

 and is brought up without difficulty. 



The bob is made by stringing on to a strong piece of worsted 

 yarn or linen thread, a large number of worms, wound up into 

 a ball, and by attaching your line, and letting it down with an 

 appropriate sinker, to the bottom ; when you feel any bites, 

 give a little time, that they may get well hold ; pull up mode- 

 rately until at the top of the water, then give a jerk, sudden but 

 steady, and you will, if successful, have several that will clear 

 themselves without your help. 



Pot fishing is still more of the wholesale kind, and is much 

 practised in the country streams. The pot is made much after 

 the fashion of an Irish potatoe hamper, but of the commonest 

 basket materials, and the end like the entrance to a mouse 

 trap, forming an inverted cone, with an elastic hole, large 

 enough for the animals to squeeze their way through. These 

 ends are constructed so that they can be taken off to bait, or 

 to remove the fish. They are usually from 3 to 4 feet in 

 length, and 6 to 8 inches in diameter. The bait, con- 

 sisting of pieces of meat, fish, or garbage of any description, 



