10 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



working hard to get it* ; whilst only two or three semi-amateurs 

 more seriously "bab " for sale. As I have elsewhere stated, the 

 old Breydoners of my younger days are dead. " Short'un " 

 Page, "the last of the Mohicans," at the moment of writing 

 aged and decrepit, is spending the late winter of his days in the 

 infirmary. 



A few observations on Eels made during my summer holidays 

 may be briefly summarised : When feeding, Eels refuse but little 

 that comes in their way. One vomited in my eel-trunk a piece 

 of raw beef; another, measuring 15 in. and showing a distended 

 abdomen, on opening it it was found to contain a 4-in. length of 

 bacon-rind, making the stomach in shape like a tennis-racket. 

 An aged Breydoner told me that .when babbing near the Haven 

 bridge he broke his pipe and threw in the pieces. He noticed 

 soon after one Eel with a lumpy appearance, and curiosity 

 tempted him to skin it. From the stomach he took out a part of 

 the pipe-shank. To skin an Eel with least trouble the tail must 

 be struck against a hard substance. No matter how lively an 

 Eel may be, the moment the vertebrae near the head are severed 

 it hangs limp as a dead worm. Eels die quickly in crowded eel- 

 boxes, undoubtedly of asphyxiation, and eel-catchers are always 

 eager to send off their fish as soon as possible after capture ; yet 

 they will take little harm from sewage water, although the slightest 

 admixture of tar, petrol, or pungent oils sends them away in a 

 great hurry. I was catching Eels on one occasion when a piece 

 of greasy cotton-waste touched the " bab " ; not another bite did 

 I get. Stale worms, unless they are very hungry, will not tempt 

 them, so that fresh worms are necessary nightly. A "bab" 

 is a 2t ; or 3-yd. chain of threaded worms, wound in coils 

 around the hand, then tied and weighted with a conical-shaped 

 leaden sinker. Eels are fickle : one evening they will bite freely 

 on one side of the river, on the next they are found on the 

 opposite only. It is a good plan to try several places until they 

 are found. On the river they bite better on the early flood than 

 at any other time of it. Eels will "mud "in the marsh ditches 



* Eel-picking is now confined to the Main Channel, which is over 20 ft. 

 deep,. or in summer, with the babbing, chiefly confined to the shallower 

 " drains " or creeks that drain the ebbing waters from the now much-raised 

 and hardened acres of mud-flats. 



