TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 225 



pole and a strong line and hook 

 to land him safely. There is no 

 other fish of its size that has that 

 peculiar jerking power and "pull- 

 ing away of the line" as an eel, 

 and it takes all the exertion of both 

 hands to pull an eel out of its 

 watery element. Any fisherman of 

 experience will corroborate this. 



Eels are often caught at night 

 on a tfot line or a common fish 

 line staked to some secure low 

 branch of a tree or along the bank, 

 and occasionally a large string of 

 all soi'ts of fish, perch, catfish, trout, 

 bass, buffalo and others, are caught 

 on such trot lines at one setting 

 during the night, especially during 

 cloudy or rainy weather, when fish 

 in general are more lively in search 

 of food. 



The usual size of the Texas eel 

 is about two or three feet, but some 

 exceptionally large specimens, from 

 five to six feet long are occasionally 

 caught in some of the Texas rivers. 

 The specimens seen depicted from 

 nature in this issue were caught by 

 Wm. Hoffman's brother at the 

 latter's home in New Braunfels in 

 the Guadalupe River, where eel and 

 a great variety of other fish abound. 

 Where water cress and other plants 

 are plentiful eels prefer to con- 

 gregate in search of crawfish, in- 

 sects and their larvae, and small 

 fish. The large earthworm, how- 

 ever, is the best bait for eel, also 

 liver is good, and the writer caught 

 the last one with some old cheese. 



In viewing the interesting pho- 

 tos herein of a large eel's mouth 

 parts (one of which was artifi- 

 cially spread open) a large num- 

 ber of small and sharp teeth are 

 seen along the front and side parts 

 of the lower jaw. These are the 

 grab teeth and serve the animal 

 for capturing and masticating its 

 food, and woe unto any one get- 

 ting his finger accidentally into 

 the mouth of a live eel ! 



The head and entire body, its 

 absence of fins and its enormous 

 flexibility and slippery appearance 

 makes the eel resemble closely the 



body of a snake. However, the eel 

 is void of scales, and its head parts 

 though resembling a snake's head, 

 have different anatomical arrange- , 

 ments, and it differs in its uni- 

 form rounded head and neck, its 

 short and broad tongue, grab teeth 

 and eyes, which are much larger 

 than the optics of a snake, as seen 

 in the engraving. 



For comparison I have added a 

 water moccasin's head below the 

 eel's head (also a side view) show- 

 ing the wide differences in the 

 broad outlines of the head and jaw; 

 bones, the scales and both poison 

 fangs. 



This reptile is the genuine cot- 

 ton-mouth moccasin, a dangerous 

 snake, often confounded with other 

 harmless water snakes, but rarely 

 met with now days. The genuine 

 moccasin is more of a land snake 

 out it lurks close to the water's 

 edge or is met with suspended on a 

 branch overhanging the water. 

 It is a smaller but broader snake 

 chan the common black or dark 

 orown water snakes oftener en- 

 countered in remote fishing places, 

 the latter snakes being void of 

 poison fangs. 



The writer has, in other articles 

 often called attention to the dif- 

 ference between a genuine moc- 

 casin and the other variety of 

 river snakes. Around inhabited 

 places the genuine moccasin is 

 very seldom seen; some of the 

 other val-iety, however, resembles 

 it in some respects and it is there- 

 fore of course always advisable 

 to exterminate them, and these, 

 as well as the rattlesnake, have 

 been exterminated extensively in 

 late years with the rapid onward 

 march of civilization along the 

 rivulets of Texas. 



A common harmless snake would 

 have shown the close resemblance 

 of an eel's head more readily in 

 our illustration, and this mocca- 

 sin's head parts were added merely 

 as an interesting contrast for the 

 eel's head parts. 



For the reason of this resemb- 



