EELS 321 



out between them in such a way as to form a tangled ball. This 

 Is then fastened to the end of a strong line, and dropped into the 

 water. When an eel tries to swallow the worms its teeth are 

 caught in the worsted, and before it can disengage itself it can be 

 dragged out of the water. 



Eels are more commonly taken, however, by "spearing". The 

 spear consists of a long-handled fork with four prongs, each of 

 which is barbed at the tip. This is plunged into the mud at the 

 bottom of a pond or stream, and an eel, when caught between the 

 prongs, is securely held by the barbs. 



Eels which live in ponds and streams whence they cannot travel 

 down to the sea in autumn, either hide under stones or bury them- 

 selves in the mud, and there remain in a condition of torpor until 

 the first warm days of spring. 



Like other fish the young of eels are produced from eggs, an 

 enormous number of which are deposited by a single fish. They 

 are so exceedingly tiny that it is by no means easy to count them. 

 By the aid of a powerful microscope, however, this task has been 

 successfully accomplished, and it has been found that a large eel, of 

 some six pounds in weight, produces no fewer than nine million 

 eggs annually. 



While very young the little eels are called "elvers", and are 

 then quite unlike their parents. When they have grown to a 

 length of about three inches they are almost transparent, and look 

 like strips of vermicelli, with a little round black dot on either side 

 of one end. These dots are the eyes. So small and thin are the 

 elvers at this stage that eighty only weigh one ounce. 



In olden days, before it had been discovered that eels lay eggs 

 like other fish, and that these little elvers are their young, it was 

 commonly supposed that they were produced from horse-hairs 

 which fell into the water as the horses were drinking, and after long 

 soaking were converted into eels! 



The food of eels is very varied; indeed, they will devour al- 

 most any substance of an animal nature. They are fond of worms, 

 and of the different insects which fall into the water; and they 

 will also eat frogs, toads, tadpoles, newts, small fish, and even 

 the young of aquatic birds. Mice, rats, and water-voles, too, are 



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