Eelgrass

“ The evidence at present available indicates that the spawning of mature eels takes place beyond the 100 fathom line, and that the young eels which reach the coast are already a year old. As eels, both young and old, are able to live for a long time out of water and have the habit of travelling at night over land in wet grass and in damp weather, there is no difficulty in explaining their presence in wells, ponds or other isolated bodies of fresh water at any distance from the sea. ”

“ He may dig the hole, too, as the male stickleback builds the nest. I do not know as to that. But I have raised many a stone in the edge of the tide along the shore of Naushon Island in Buzzard’s Bay, to find the under surface covered with round, drop-like, amber eggs, and in the shallow cavity beneath, an old male toadfish, slimy and croaking, and with a countenance ugly enough to turn a prowling eel to stone. The female deposits the eggs, glues them fast with much nicety to the under surface of the rock, as a female might, and finishes her work. ”

“ In getting away from the pond it may be necessary to wriggle through the damp meadow-grass before reaching the river. They travel by night and rather excitedly. The Arctic Ocean is too cold for them and the North Sea too shallow. They must go far out to sea, to where the old margin of the once larger continent of Europe slopes down to the great abysses, from the Hebrides southwards. Eels seem to spawn in the deep dark water; but the just liberated eggs have not yet been found. The young fry rises to near the surface and becomes a knife-blade-like larva, transparent all but its eye. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Eel-grass, which grows on the sandy flats under the ocean along the coast, is preferred to any other covering as it lays light and keeps in dead air which is a non-conductor of heat. Forest leaves are next in value; but snow and water are apt to get among these and freezing solid destroy most of their protecting value. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All we know is this: that eels never reproduce in fresh water; that a certain number of adults descend the rivers to the sea, irregularly, during the winter months; and that some of these must presumably spawn with the utmost circumspection in brackish water or in the deep sea, for in the course of the summer myriads of young eels, commonly called grigs, and proverbial for their merriment, ascend the rivers in enormous bodies, and enter every smaller or larger tributary. ”

“ The eel lives in the mud. among weeds, roots or stumps of trees, or holes in the banks, or the bottoms of rivers, where they often grow to an enormous size, weighing as much as 15 lb. or 16 lb. It seldom emerges from its hiding-place except in the night; and in winter, on account of its great susceptibility to cold, it buries itself in the mud. The eel is noted for its voracity and tenacity of life, and also for its remarkable fecundity, the young of the eels which spawn in the estuaries of rivers passing up the streams in vast numbers ”

“ A great deal more can be said about eels than most people would suppose; more, at any rate, than has ever yet been made public in one place. For one thing, there is so little known about these fish, about their habits and history, as to have given cause for a large amount of speculation; how they breed, how they grow, and when they are fit to become food, are points which have been but very indifferently elucidated. We have, in times past, been treated to a great mass of questionable information about fish of all kinds, and particularly eels ”

“ This a nice preparation of the richest fresh water fish we have, and will fully repay the amateur for the trouble and trifling expense. I have said “river eels,” because those fish of ponds or waters nearly stagnant, when they run to large sizes, are said to taste of the mud they inhabit. I have experienced the truth of this. Take fresh eels of two pounds each and upwards, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, split them open at the belly to the backbone, from the vent upwards, and clean them out, well washing them also in salt and water a minute or two. ”

“ Many of the rivers and lakes of the islands of the Western Pacific are tenanted by eels of great size, which are never, or very seldom, as far as I could learn, interfered with by the natives, and I have never seen the people of either the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, or New Britain touch an eel as food. The Maories, however, as is well known, are inordinately fond of eels, which, with putrid shark, constitute one of their staple articles of diet. ”

“ No one knows what mysterious depths they penetrate, but it is said that baby eels are found in one and two thousand fathoms of water. By midsummer they are about six inches long, and are running home up the brooks. They wriggle up waterfalls and scale the sheer faces of dams. They stay three or four years in their inland home, growing to full size, and in September, the fat grown-up eels run down the streams again, to spawn in the sea. This is the time when they are caught at dams and in mill streams, and shipped to the big cities in quantities. ”

“ In these days the eels brought to market are few, and not half the size they used to be. Eels, from 2ft. to 3ft. long, and as thick as one’s wrist, were formerly quite common. Eels are supposed to migrate to the sea, and, in the year 1903, a large eel was found, early in the morning, about 100 yards from a large pond, in the parish of Wispington, travelling across a grass field, towards a stream, by which it might eventually reach the sea.
The only other fish which I have to remark upon is the trout. They are not found in the Witham; but the Bain trout are handsome ”

“ Such are the shad and the river-herrings or alewives, which leave the sea in the spring and ascend to the river heads to spawn, and the salmon, which does likewise, to spawn in the brooklets in November and December. Still more remarkable is the eel, which breeds in the sea, where the male eels always remain, while the young females, when as large as darning needles, ascend in the spring to inland lakes and streams, there to remain, until, after three or four years, they are grown to maturity, when they descend to salt water, to reproduce their kind and die. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They climb vertical walls and flood-gates, and even leave the water and wriggle their way overland at night amid the dewy grass till they come to water again. Such migrations have long been known as 'Eel-fairs,' and fishermen at this time take them by the ton. In 1886, for example, more than three tons were taken from the Gloucester district. Now, it takes upwards of fourteen thousand baby eels to weigh a pound; how many eels are there in three tons? There is a sum for you! Those that escape grow up to furnish the 'eel-pies' and stewed eels which some people find so toothsome. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The larger the river, the bigger and deeper the mill cut and dam, unless the mill is built across an arm of the stream itself. This mill-dam, as every trout-fisher knows, holds the biggest fish, and where there are no trout, or few trout, it will be full of big fish, while in the pool below there are perhaps as many more. Of all the food fishes of our rivers the eel is really far the most important. He flourishes everywhere, in the smallest pools and brooks as well as in the largest rivers, and grows up to a weight of 9 lb. ”

“ 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 flesh of the eel (Anguilla vulgaris) , being highly nutritious, is excellent as food, but is sometimes found too oily for weak stomachs.
Eel pies and stewed eels cause a large demand in this metropolis, and some 70 or 80 cargoes, or about 700 tons a year, are brought over from Holland. The total [Pg 239] consumption of this fish in England is estimated at 4,300 tons per annum. Eels are very prolific. They are found in almost all parts of the world.
An abundance of large eels of fine quality are caught in the rivers and harbours of New Brunswick. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Their body is long and so heavy that in the early morning, when their wings are damp with the dew, they cannot rise to fly and are readily picked up by their wings, which project invitingly above their backs. Eel Bay is named from the immense quantities of these flies that appear there; they constitute the principal food of the fish from which they derive their name, as well as of the cisco, black and rock bass, chubs, and probably many others. They rise with difficulty from the water, and fly heavily and slowly. ”

“ I amused them all very much by showing how the electric shock from the eels could pass from one person to another. We joined hands in a line whilst I touched the biggest and freshest of the animals on the head with the point of my hunting-knife. We found that this experiment did not succeed more than three times with the same eel when out of the water: for, the fourth time, the shock was scarcely perceptible. All the fishes found in the holes (besides the eels) belonged to one species, a small kind of Acarí, or Loricaria, a group whose members have a complete bony integument. ”