uv-RMmDM. 377 



its taste. Sometimes the space to be traversed involves 

 a considerable land journey ; and as these fish do not, lilce 

 anabaSj climb trees to sleep, and do not carry water in 

 ponches, like some camel-fish, to moisten their persons, 

 this shifting of domicile can only be undertaken when 

 heavy dews are on the grass ; and night and early morn- 

 ing accordingly are generally chosen for the flitting. A 

 nocturnal journey occasions no inconvenience to eels, as 

 it is their common practice to turn night into day; every 

 fisherman knows that they do not begin ' to run,^ as it is 

 called, on errands of business or pleasure, till after the sun 

 is gone down ; and that the time to catch them is when 

 most of their scaly congeners repose on folded fin. Many 

 a disappoiated cockney on the banks of the Lea or New 

 River, who has toiled aU day to no purpose, sees, as he 

 is about to bag his rod, and trudge home with an empty 

 basket, the trembling quill recede slowly under the water, 

 and tugs Out, to his surprise and delight, a whacking 

 eel; after which he is sure to tm'n all his subsequent lob- 

 worms to good account. Our little Parisian barber, who 

 was an enthusiastic sniggler, but had no time to exercise 

 this supplementary calling tiU after his opera ' coifiees' 

 were in their boxes, often paused to relate, as he turned 

 our coxcomb hair under his crushing irons, how he would 

 then frequently steal out to the Seine, ascend the river 

 sometimes as far as Corbeil, take his bank-runners out 

 of the gibeciere, bait some dozen lines, throw across the 

 stream, and finally adjust to each a little cariUon of 

 bells ; ' and then, sir,' would continue this vivacious 

 man of wigs, flourishing his irons to cool their ardour 

 (his own was unabated), 'sometimes I get a wetting, 

 and sometimes I catch cold, but whatever else I catch, 

 I always catch eels ! Thus I stand,' and he has put him- 

 self into the listening attitude of Grisi, in La Sonnam- 

 bula, ' on the watch for a ring ; hark ! it comes — tinkle, 

 tinkle, tinkle, in three places at once ; and guided by the 



