126 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The measurements of the traps are the extreme sizes taken 

 from inside the sluice-gates. The average weight of Eels is 

 taken from a period of the last ten years. The records of the 

 heaviest catches taken in one night and the largest Eels obtained 

 is from information generally. 



The weight of Eels taken at the respective traps is in a few 

 instances approximate only ; the quantity taken at any particular 

 mill is dependent upon how regularly the traps are worked, and 

 in relation also to the number of Eels taken in other traps above 

 stream. But the general total would not be affected. This 

 shows an annual take within this county of 3 ton 18 cwt., which, 

 taken at an average weight of |- lb. each, would number nearly 

 17,500 Eelst At the local market price of 6d. per lb. the 

 total catch would be practically £220 value, or even more if the 

 London trade were supplied. 



Drainage of the fens and the watershed of the Ouse generally 

 must have accounted for a considerable decrease of Eels, and 

 further no fish could be subjected to greater persecution by 

 their capture, and it is not surprising to find that it would be 

 impossible for several of the mills mentioned in the Domesday 

 Book to take at the present time even as many as formerly paid 

 for part rent. 



Eels working down the Ouse from above Bedfordshire have 

 to pass eleven traps within this county alone, or, again, nine 

 traps from the upper reaches of the Ivel, any of which traps are 

 practically capable of taking every Eel on migration. 



But fortunately for the preservation of the Eel from extermi- 

 nation, the mill traps are often worked but intermittently, as when 

 the miller's trade is good and the water supply limited it is often- 

 times all required for motive power and none can be spared to 

 pass through the sluice-gates for Eel-catching, and so at many 

 of the traps they oftentimes escape capture. 



The taking of Eels is principally by means of fixed traps, 

 traps that are probably very little different in their construction 

 from those of Norman times.* A trap consists of an upward sloping 



* 'Victoria County History, Bedfordshire,' vol. i., p. 212, says: "The 

 Eels so often found in Domesday as forming a portion of the mill's render 

 came of course from the mill-pool." This is obviously incorrect, the Eels 

 being taken from the stream above the mill. 



