Eel

“ And this Eel, of which I have said so much to you, may be caught with
divers kinds of baits: as namely, with powdered beef; with a lob or
garden worm; with a minnow; or gut of a hen, chicken, or the guts of
any fish, or with almost anything, for he is a greedy fish. But the Eel
may be caught, especially, with a little, a very little Lamprey, which
some call a Pride, and may, in the hot months, be found many of them
in the river Thames, and in many mud-heaps in other rivers; yea, almost
as usually as one finds worms in a dunghill. ”

“ The first sign of the eel coming is the finding of an eel in the stomach of a lush, the fish which is our main food in winter. Some one may find an eel in a lush, miles away from the village, and then at once he sends word, and the men go out to the places on the river where the channel is narrow and there are good feeding grounds for the eel. Here they come so thick that they cause the water to rise, and you have but to throw them out on the bank with a stick. As people eel together in this way, every one would know if a man went eeling after a death or birth in his family. ”

“ An eel is a favourite morsel with him, and a Cormorant has been seen to pick up an eel from the mud, return to the rail he was previously sitting upon, strike the eel three or four hard blows against the rail, toss it up into the air, and, catching it by the head in its fall, swallow it in an instant. ”

“ The eel is scarcely an angler's fish, but it is often taken in angling, and it is a most excellent and luscious table fish. It takes various baits, as worms, small dead fish, which are the best for it, and takes them better when they are still than when moving. Thus, night-lines are the best way of capturing the eel. Occasionally float tackle is used for the purpose, when the roughest tackle, with a float-hook and worm, suffices. Sniggling for eels is an amusing way of taking them. A stout needle, lashed to a long string, is concealed in a worm ”

“ I regret much to add that great and needless cruelties are practised on the eel tribe, as, though the eel is tenacious of life, the mere disjointing of one of the vertebræ is sufficient to deprive it of feeling, and the motion that follows is purely muscular. ”

“ The annual migration seaward of the sharp-nosed eels gives rise to the valuable eel-fisheries of the English rivers, in which the fish are intercepted by wicker traps or eel-sets placed across the river, and in one of which 70,000 have been caught in one night. The moving of the fish is done in the night and always in a dark night; and it is liable to be interrupted by a change of wind, a clap of thunder, or a clearing away of the clouds. What becomes of the immense numbers of eels that descend to the sea every season has never been found out. ”

“ In England itself, on the other hand, we have at least one kind of fish which exemplifies the opposite or migratory solution of the dry pond problem, and that is our familiar friend the common eel. The ways of eels are indeed mysterious, for nobody has ever yet succeeded in discovering where, when, or how they manage to spawn; nobody has ever yet seen an eel's egg, or caught a female eel in the spawning condition, or even observed a really adult male or female specimen of perfect development. All the eels ever found in fresh water are immature and undeveloped creatures. ”

“ THE EEL TRIBE.—The Apodal, or bony-gilled and ventral-finned fish, of which the eel forms the first Linnaean tribe, in their general aspect and manners, approach, in some instances, very nearly to serpents. They have a smooth head and slippery skin, are in general naked, or covered with such small, soft, and distant scales, as are scarcely visible. Their bodies are long and slender, and they are supposed to subsist entirely on animal substances. There are about nine species of them, mostly found in the seas. ”

“ Having these worms ready, they get a piece of elastic bark, and some long grass, on which they string them; this is tied to a rod, and as the eel, after biting, holds on tenaciously, he is thrown or rather jerked upon the bank, in the same way as boys catch the cray-fish in England. Some of these eels are very fine, and large. They are generally—and more easily—caught by the natives during the night, and are eaten roasted. ”

“ When the eel wishes to take in his water supply, he, as it were, opens his umbrella shaped framework and fills his reservoir; when he wishes to expel the water, he, as it were, closes his umbrella." When an eel is taken out of the water he will soon expand his reservoir, and swellings will appear on either side of his head. ”

“ An eel, more than five feet long, glided under one horse, discharged its apparatus through its whole extent, attacking at once the heart, the viscera, and the plexus of the nerves of the animal, probably benumbing and finally drowning it. ”

“ I felt mean as I picked up the useless thing and looked far away to the great nest with its hungry young. I was no better than the bald eagle, the lazy robber-baron, who had stolen the dinner of these same young hawks the day before.
Their mother had been fishing up the river and had caught a tremendous eel. An eel can hold out to wriggle a very long time. He has no vitals. Even with talon-tipped claws he is slippery and more than a clawful ”

“ Let all go into the pond or pool, and we shall fare like lords next year."
At the beginning of next year following the men drew near the pond to have their fish, and there was nothing but a great eel. "Ah," said they all, "a mischief on this eel, for he has eaten up all our fish."
"What shall we do to him?" said one to the other.
"Kill him," said one.
"Chop him into pieces," said another. "Not so," said another; "let us drown him." ”

“ Eel.—The eel (Anguilla vulgaris) is regarded by the angler more as a nuisance than a sporting fish, but when of considerable size (and it often reaches a weight of 8 lb or more) it is a splendid fighter and stronger than almost any fish that swims. Its life history has long been disputed, but it is now accepted that it breeds in the sea and ascends rivers in its youth. It is found practically everywhere, and its occurrence in isolated ponds to which it has never been introduced by human agency has given rise to a theory that it travels overland as well as by water. ”

“ Food of the Eel.—An excellent observer, Richard Holme, of Rusland, informs me that he has seen an Eel swallow a fresh-water Lamprey, tail first. He has also more than once watched an Eel attempting to catch small Trout (or other young Salmonidæ) by snatching at them as they passed by. Once he saw an Eel actually catch one. ”

“ Pliny tells us, that one of the Roman punishments for youths under the age of seventeen years was to flog them with whips made of eel-skin.
201. The COMMON EEL (Muræna anguilla, Fig. 55) is distinguishable by its lower jaw being somewhat longer than the upper, and the body being of an uniform colour.
{186} It is an inhabitant of rivers and ponds in almost every country of Europe; and sometimes grows to the weight of fifteen or twenty pounds.
The flesh of the eel affords a very rich and delicious food ”

“ It must be practised when the tide is flowing, as the eels come in to feed with the flood tide. The worms should be sea-worms, dug out of the mud at low water. Common land-worms turn quite white in salt water, and are of very little use. I have also taken the silver fresh-water eel by “bobbing” in the river Loddon, and in the Thames at Henley.
The sea sand-eel is a very bony fish and exceedingly inferior, but it commands a good sale amongst the lower orders owing to its cheapness. Its size rarely exceeds twelve inches in length, and its thickness is no more than that of a man’s finger. ”

“ And lastly, let me tell you, that some curious searchers into the natures of fish observe, that there be several sorts or kinds of Eels; as the silver Eel, the green or greenish Eel, with which the river of Thames abounds, and those are called Grigs; and a blackish Eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than ordinary Eels; and also an Eel whose fins are reddish, and but seldom taken in this nation, and yet taken sometimes. These several kind of Eels are, say some, diversely bred ”

“ The angler pulls with a steady strain at the line, until at last the eel, unable to resist longer, comes out and is caught. Clotting for eels, by means of a big bunch of worms strung upon worsted and gathered up into festoons, is another way. The eels entangle their teeth in the worsted, and are lifted out and dropped into a pail. A hundredweight in a night has been caught in this way. They are chiefly caught, however, by baskets, nets, or traps set in mill-weirs, when they are migrating, and in some places, at such times, tons of eels are caught in a night. ”

“ Your lithe birch rod bends in your hands till the tip is near your wrist as you lean desperately back with all your strength. The hold of a three-foot eel on the water is tremendous. Until he tires a bit it is almost as good as yours on the birch pole, but steadily, inch by inch, you draw him away out into the pool, where the fight is a fair one. ”

“ The birds preferred eels to all other food, and, in spite of the difficulty in swallowing the slippery and active creature, would not touch another fish as long as an eel was left. The bird is so completely at home in the water that it does not need, like the heron and other aquatic birds, to bring its prey ashore in order to swallow it, but can eat fish in the water as well as catch them. It always seizes the fish crosswise, and is therefore obliged to turn it before it can swallow the prey with the head downwards. ”

“ The Eels are properly fresh-water fishes, which migrate to the sea after they have deposited their spawn in the rivers. We have three or four species, differing a little in the form of the head, but sufficiently alike both in appearance and habits to allow of one being taken as a fair sample of the rest. The most common is the Sharp-nosed Eel (Anguilla acutirostris, Yarr.) , which is abundant in most of our rivers, lakes, and marshes, as in those of continental Europe. ”

“ First raising his body nearly perpendicular, down he plunges into the deep, and, after staying there a considerable time, he is sure to bring up a fish, which he invariably swallows head foremost. Sometimes half an hour elapses before he can manage to accommodate a large eel quietly in his stomach. ”

“ The Eel. Anquilla anquilla.
Grows to three feet in length. Color, greenish brown; belly, lighter yellowish.
The Eel ascends the rivers and brooks in the spring, returning in the fall to the seashore, where it winters, sometimes in great numbers cuddled together in the deep holes of the river beds.
During the day the Eel hides in the mud, but at night is found in all waters, a voracious and destructive animal feeder. Bites readily at worms, dead or live fish, or meat.
As a food the flesh of the Eel is considered very fine, although rich. ”

“ Pare the patient's nails when the fit is coming on, and put the parings into a little bag of fine linen or sarsanet, and tie that about a live eel's neck in a tub of water. The eel will die and the patient will recover. And if a dog or hog eat that eel they will also die. ”

“ The fresh-water eels are the best, and the silver eel among these should always be preferred. Buy them, if possible, alive, and in order to kill them, divide the spine just behind the head without severing it from the body. ”

“ When searching in thick grass or in the mud for its prey, the bill is kept partly open: by this means I have observed it take eels in a pond with great dexterity: no spear, common in use for taking that fish, can more effectually receive it between its prongs than the grasp of the Stork's open mandibles. A small eel has no chance of escaping when once roused from its lurking-place. ”

“ About all the ways man has devised for catching fish have been devised by fishes themselves long before man came on the scene. Traps—for example. There is a fish in Florida waters known as the greater sand eel. It lies buried in the sand, with its great mouth open. A relative, the lesser sand eel, when frightened dives into what seems like an opening in [Pg 73] the sand. The result is that the greater sand eel is nearly always found with a lesser sand eel, head down, in its stomach. ”

“ Black eels, so called, are a rich dark brown in reality, and the color is given them by [96] dipping them in soy before broiling; and white eels are the bits broiled without sauces. Laid across bowls of snowy rice, the eels make as pretty a dish as can be served one, and many foreigners besides the appreciative English poet have paid tribute to their excellence. An eel dinner in a river-bank tea-house, with a juggler or a few maiko to enliven the waits between the courses, is most delightful of Tokio feasts. ”

“ When you get your foot firmly on him, you find that he has swallowed the hook, and you have to cut him completely open, from head to tail, to get the hook out, and then, as likely as not, the eel will flip back into the water and escape. I think eels rarely die. ”

“ They do not rise with the rush of a salmon or trout, never springing out of water, and simply show their heads as they seize their prey. The eel-fly is a fat and sluggish fly, and it may be that the fish rising slowly, as they naturally do, would discover the deception even if an imitation eel-fly were offered to them. ”

“ The brilliant discovery by the Danish investigators of immense numbers of the fry of the common eel in the deep water of the Atlantic, west of Ireland, and the absence of the eggs and fry from the North Sea and Baltic, render it practically certain that the countless hordes of eels which leave the rivers of North Western Europe in autumn migrate to the ocean for spawning purposes; and, more remarkable still, that the delicate young elvers which enter the same streams in autumn have already overcome the perils of their long return migration. ”