EELS AND EEL-CATCHING IN BEDFORDSHIRE. 127 



grid with an upright end fixed between the sluice-walls, and three 

 to four feet from the mouth of the sluice-gate. When the gate is 

 slightly raised, the power of the higher stream forces the water into 

 the trap, and any Eels that enter are carried upwards to the head 

 of trap ; here they lie in a wooden trough protected from the force 

 of the water, and if the traps are so constructed, this trough is 

 continued through the sluice-wall to an Eel-well built in the bank 

 of the stream, where, with a continuous stream of water passing 

 through, the Eels can remain until they are marketed, although 

 in many such wells they are liable to a fungoid growth if left for 

 many weeks; hence many Eel catchers prefer to keep them in 

 perforated wooden boxes in the open river. 



Funnel traps are used at Eaton Socon, Oakley, and formerly 

 at Eoxton. These traps have a wired, funnel-shaped covered-in 

 entrance that quickly converges into a boxed-in trough, along 

 which the Eels pass to the transverse trough leading to the Eel- 

 well. The objection to these traps is partly their instability, 

 but more particularly their liability to get quickly choked up 

 with weeds, sticks, and other refuse, and the difficulty of freeing 

 them again in comparison with the open traps. 



Other means of taking Eels are with the independent basket 

 traps, which are usually about three feet long and constructed 

 of osiers ; these are placed on the bottom of the stream, and of 

 course have to be baited. A number also used to be taken with 

 night-lines. But both these methods are far less practised now 

 than formerly. Some few are secured by angling, usually with 

 a hook, but occasionally by a needle-threaded worm. 



Eel-gleving, once a common method of taking Eels, is now 

 almost unknown. A gleve is a four- or five-bladed spear 

 attached to a pole some 15 ft. long, and used by continually 

 thrusting it into the bed of the stream wherever Eels were con- 

 sidered likely to lie. Any Eel struck by the gleve is forced up 

 by the blow between the blades and held securely in that posi- 

 tion by the rows of barbs along each edge of the blades. The 

 shallower streams with a more or less even bottom are most 

 suited for their capture, hence gleving was far more frequently 

 practised on the Ivel and other smaller streams and backwaters 

 than on the Ouse itself. 



Of the life-history of the Eel little can be gleaned from those 



