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C. J. Cornish - The Naturalist on the Thames
about to fish" with this kind of eel-trap is suggestive of new ideas about eels. He says that "for bait
nothing can beat about a dozen and a-half of small or medium live gudgeon, failing these large minnows,
small dace, roach, loach, &c., though in some streams about a dozen good bright large lob worms,
threaded on a copper wire and suspended inside, are very effective, and should always be given a trial.
Offal I have tried but found useless, eels being a cleaner feeding fish than many are aware of; and
feeding principally in gravelly, weedy parts, the basket should be well tucked up under a long flowing
weed, as it is to these places they go for food, such as the ground fish, loach, miller's thumb, crayfish,
shrimps, mussels, &c. When I worked a fishery near here, I made it a rule after setting the basket to well
scratch the soil in front of the entrance with the boathook I used for lowering them, and firmly believe
their curiosity was excited by the disturbed gravel. Choose water from four feet to six feet deep, and see
basket lays flat. Every morning when picked up, lay them on the bank, pick out all weed and rubbish, and
brush them over with a bass broom, keeping them out of water till setting again at dusk."
Eel-bucks, of which few perfect sets now remain, are the fixed engines so often seen on the Thames, and
are a costly and rather striking contrivance, adding greatly to the picturesqueness of parts of the river.
They are very ancient, and date from days when the "eel-run" was one of the annual events of river life.
The eels went down in millions to the sea, and the elvers came up in such tens of millions that they made
a black margin to the river on either side by the bank, where they swam because the current was there
weakest. The large eels were taken, and are still taken, on their downward journey in autumn. It is then
that the Thames fills, and at the first big rush of water the eels begin to descend to reach the mud and
sands at the Thames mouth, where they spawn. They always travel by night, and it is then that the heavy
eel-bucks are lowered. Often hundredweights are taken in a night, all of good size, one of the largest of
which there is any record being one of 15 lb., taken in the Kennet near Newbury. In the "grig-wheels"
they are taken as small as 3 oz. or 4 oz.; but in the bucks they rarely weigh less than 1 lb. The darkest
nights are the most favourable. Moonlight stops them, and they do not like still weather. The upward
migration of eels goes on from February till May on the Thames, but the regular "eel-fare" of the young
grigs do not assume any great size till May, when as many as 1,800, about three inches long, were seen to
pass a given point in one minute. So say the records. But who could have counted them so fast?
A few recent developments of the eel trade elsewhere show how valuable this may be. Quite lately the
Danes discovered that the Lim-fiord and some other shallow Broads on the West Danish Coast were a
huge preserve of eels. They began trawling there steadily, and have established a large and lucrative trade
in them. On the Bann, in Ireland, eel catching is still done in a large way, and the fish shipped to London.
But the most ancient and yet most modern of eel fisheries is on the Adriatic, at Comacchio, where
lagoons 140 miles in circumference are stocked with eels, and eel breeding and exporting are carried out
on a large scale. Even as early as the sixteenth century the Popes used to derive an income of L12,000
from this source.
SHEEP, PLAIN AND COLOURED
In the Thames Valley there are two very distinguished breeds of sheep - the Cotswolds at the head of the
watershed, and the Oxford Downs, near Wallingford. Wallingford lamb is supposed to be the best in the
market. There are also the Berkshire Downs sheep, but these are, I think, more obviously cross-bred, or
else of the Hampshire breed. The Cotswold sheep are probably a very old breed. They are evidently the
original of the woolly "baa-lamb" of the nursery, with long, fleecy wool. The Oxford Downs are a
short-woolled sheep. One of the flocks of this breed has been improved by selection, mainly in regard to
fecundity, to such an extent that I believe twins are the normal proportion among the lambs. The
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