146 PISH CULTURE. 



water spawning is not so favourable to their increase 

 as the brackish, or whether large numbers of eels still 

 migrate and die in the foul water, or that, getting 

 down with a flood to aid them, they do spawn and 

 the fry are killed when they reach the foul water, I 

 am quite unable to say ; but I have little doubt that 

 when the Thames is once more purified, "eel-fare" 

 will in time again recur to it. Eel fisheries are in 

 many places very valuable. The fishery on the 

 Erne realizes many hundreds of pounds a year. Any 

 eulogy as to the exceUenee of the sharp-nosed eel 

 for food is needless. There are three kinds of eels 

 known in England : the broad-nosed, the sharp- 

 nosed, and the snig. The former is a coarse, foul- 

 feeding, and worthless fish, but is not very plentiful ; 

 the last is a very local species, found chiefly in the 

 Hampshire Avon. 



Flounders for the most part are not taken in any 

 very great quantity above the tide-way, and may 

 therefore be encouraged as far as possible. They are 

 an admirable table-fish, however they may be dressed. 

 A Thames flounder is held a special delicacy ; large 

 quantities were formerly caught from Battersea to 



Thames. Formerly many stages or " Bucks," as they are termed, 

 existed, and were a valuable property, but most of them have been 

 abandoned long since,. 



