THE EEL. (Anguilla vulgaris.)
The Eel resembles a serpent in its form, though no two animals can be more different in every other respect. Eels are fresh-water fish; but as they are very susceptible of cold, those which inhabit rivers go down every autumn towards the sea, which is always warmer than a river, and return in spring. They are said also to spawn in the sea, and great numbers of young Eels are seen in spring ascending tidal rivers. Mr. Edward Jesse, in his edition of “Walton’s Angler,” says: “A column of them has been traced in the Thames from Somerset House to Oxford, about the middle of May, and I have watched their progress with much interest. No impediment stops them. They keep as much as possible close alongshore, and as they pass watercourses, open ditches, and brooks, &c., some of them leave the column and enter these places, along which they eventually make their way to ponds, smaller rivers, &c. So strong is the migratory instinct in these little eels, that when I have taken some in a bucket and returned them to the river at some distance from the column, they have immediately rejoined it without any deviation to the right or left. On the banks of the Thames the passage is called Eel-fare. Two observers, watching their progress at Kingston, calculated that from sixteen to eighteen hundred passed a given line per minute. Rennie saw (on the 13th of May) a column of young eels of uniform size, about as thick as a crow-quill, and three inches long, returning to the river Clyde, in almost military order, keeping within parallel lines of about six inches. He traced it for several hours without perceiving any diminution.” Those that live in ponds seek the deep water for their winter quarters, and sometimes bury themselves in the mud at the bottom. They are very tenacious of life, and will live for a long time out of water; they are even sometimes found on the grass, passing from one pond to another, in search, it is said, of food.
They are voracious feeders, eating frogs, snails, and other molluscous animals, worms, the fry of fishes, and the larvæ of various insects, as well as grass and aquatic weeds. Mr. Jesse states that he has known them to eat young ducks, and even water-rats.
The Eel is caught in many different ways. As it seldom stirs during the day, the best method is found to be by setting night-lines. The baits most commonly used are lob-worms, loach, minnows, small perch, with the fins cut off, or small pieces of any fish; but such is the voracity of this animal that it will take almost any bait.
Spearing for Eels is a method very commonly resorted to during the winter, when Eels imbed themselves in a state of torpidity in the muddy banks of streams and ponds. Eel-spears have usually six or seven prongs, with long handles. The process consists merely in plunging them into the mud in likely places, and pulling them out again.