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Side 85 av 113
It is granted by all, or most men, that Eels, for about six months, that is
to say, the six cold months of the year, stir not up or down, neither in
the rivers, nor in the pools in which they usually are, but get into the
soft earth or mud; and there many of them together bed themselves, and
live without feeding upon anything, as I have told you some swallows
have been observed to do in hollow trees, for those six cold months.
And this the Eel and Swallow do, as not being able to endure winter
weather: for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that in the year 1125, that
year's winter being more cold than usually, Eels did, by nature's instinct,
get out of the water into a stack of hay in a meadow upon dry ground;
and there bedded themselves: but yet, at last, a frost killed them. And
our Camden relates, that, in Lancashire, fishes were digged out of the
earth with spades, where no water was near to the place. I shall say
little more of the Eel, but that, as it is observed he is impatient of cold,
so it hath been observed, that, in warm weather, an Eel has been known
to live five days out of the water.
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; as, namely, out of the
corruption of the earth; and some by dew, and other ways, as I have
said to you: and yet it is affirmed by some for a certain, that the silver
Eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning as other fish do; but that
her brood come alive from her, being then little live Eels no bigger nor
longer than a pin; and I have had too many testimonies of this, to doubt
the truth of it myself; and if I thought it needful I might prove it, but I
think it is needless.
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.
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