436 Fisning iN AMERICAN WATERS. 
The important question for the naturalist is, Why did the 
bullfrog help the bullhead? Does the celestial quality of 
charity influence the lower strata of vertebrates ? 
SECTION SECOND. 
THE COMMON EEL 
This apode is too common in both the salt-water estuaries, 
and in the fresh waters throughout America, to require a mi- 
nute description. Though many fishes come into fresh wa- 
ters to spawn, the eel spawns in salt water when it can get 
to it, going down stream in autumn, and returning in spring. 
It is a bottom fish, and winters in the mud at the bottom of 
eddies or shallow still waters in streams, where the fisher poles 
his boat along with the handle of an eel-spear, and jabs right 
Tue Common Exv.—Anguilla. 
and left in the mud, frequently impaling the writhing fish. 
The silver eel at the mouths of the trout-brooks on Long Isl- 
and is a great luxury when either fried hard or made into a 
stew. It is regarded as so great a dish at Vandewater’s, at 
South Oyster Bay, as to be preferred to a trout in the trouting 
season. In skinning the eel and drawing it, cut deeply each 
side of the backbone, and from the vent, several inches down- 
ward, cut off all the part which appears to be a receptacle of 
