the manor ponds. Like them, however, he hibernates, for in his highest condition he is still true to the instincts of the race. But what a difference between the slimy, sulphureted ooze in which they hide their diminished heads, and the pure silt and vegetable fibre beds in which their "silver" relative takes up his winter quarters, with pearly shells for his pillow, and the white surge of the lake breaking in music over his head! Often has our tiny bark paused over these winter colonies in the creeks of the lake to admire the spiricles of the semi-fluid mass, through which he breathed the purest of water. Sometimes in spring, according to the temperature of the season, he shakes off his winter lethargy, takes to roam once more through his wide domain, and to prepare for that sunny phase of his existence in which I shall presently present him to the reader. Lastly in this brief record of his habits, he essays in some dark and stormy night of November, or thereabouts, to reach that Mecca of the ocean to which all true-believing and orthodox eels endeavour to make a pilgrimage, once at least in their life. It was in a fruitless attempt of this kind that I recollect having seen 15 dozen of these intending emigrants taken of a morning from a small weir or eel-trap, constructed under the arch of a bridge that spanned a streamlet running out of a large lake, and not more than 6 to 9 inches deep. What struck me on the occasion was not of course the number of the captives, but the fact that there was not one in the lot less than about 3 lbs., and many much more. As they undoubtedly bred in the lakes, these annual migrations to the ocean, from which unlike some members of the salmon fainily they seem never to return, present a problem which the fish philosophers have not yet I believe solved.

The instrumental requisites for sun spearing are a small boat and a spear specially constructed for this purpose. Besides skill in the use of these agents, a practical knowledge of swimming, or in lieu thereof, "a good conscience," is most desirable. Persons who may never have had occasion to test practically the value of the latter gift, may perhaps inquire its connection with sun spearing. In reply, I am bound to premise, as well for my own peace of mind as to prevent inquests, that drowning in this pursuit is a contingency quite within the capability of an awkward practitioner. In the event of such a submergency, as Mrs. Malaprop might possibly say, either of the accomplishments indicated would of course be invaluable. The tyro therefore had better look to it-I am not further responsible for untoward results.

In proceeding to describe the sun-spear, it would grieve me to think that any person could confound it with the articles bearing the same name in the limbo of the squire's forfeited engines of poaching. The relation in fact is more nominal than real. The metallic part of the instrument is thus constructed:-into a small flat bar of best Swedish iron, 12 in. long, in. wide, and in. thick, 12 teeth of best spring or shear steel, 3 in. long, in. diameter in the shank, double barbed, and carefully pointed as the best fish hook, are

welded, riveted, or better screwed, as the latter admits of a new tooth being easily added in the event of one being broken or damaged. To the upper side or edge of the bar carrying the teeth described, a light socket for receiving the handle is attached by one or other of the processes indicated for fixing the "comb" or teeth. The latter should in addition be carefully tempered; and the whole blacked by one or other of the receipts, of which each workman has his own favourite. All this could be excellently well done, once upon a time, by our old friend Longhry, the village Mulciber of Ballinacarrigy, though he had not had the advantage of graduating in the forges of Birmingham or Sheffield. The handle may be formed of any light, stiff, bearing wood. Red deal free from knots answers the purpose well. The length should not be less than 16 or 17 feet; and the greatest diameter not more than about 2 inches. It should be well finished on the bench, and tapered to the top to about an inch in thickness, where it is terminated by a short bracket or handle turned on the lathe. A coat or two of copal varnish will serve the double purpose of keeping out the damp and giving it a finished appearance. I frequently thought of rendering the weapon more portable by constructing the handle in two parts; but though I cut a screw and fashion brass into all fishing requirements, as well as most "outsiders" of the trade, I could never devise a joint sufficiently light and strong to bear the strains to which the instrument is exposed in actual use, I recollect having seen with the late Charles Scarisbrick, of Scarisbrick Hall, Esqr.-Squirissime! inter Squiros, requiescat in pace!-stems of the bamboo which he used in jumping the drains of North Mods in his shooting excursions, and which would make admirable handles for the sun-spears, if they could be readily procured. They might also perhaps solve the problem of reducing the specific gravity of the weapon sufficiently to enable it to float in the event of its escaping from the hands of the operator. “An ingenious transmogrification of the old salmon leister," I fancy I hear some bilious censor exclaim: "Just such a metamorphose, sweet tempered angel, as are the best salmon rods by Farlow or Martin Kelly of Miss Juliana Berner's wattle!"

Any small boat (always excepting "punts)" well up in the bows to enable the spearsman to stand upright over the cutwater, without sinking it too deep in the pool, will answer the purpose. Should it be deficient in this quality, a boulder or two placed astern will help to right the balance as well as patent ballast. Though the craft is chiefly impelled by the spear alone in the act of looking for the game, a pair of short handy oars are indispensable companions. The thorough management of a boat is too obvious a necessity in this amusement to be insisted on here; for though water be a very pleasant playmate, it is not always safe to trust it too far. Observing that there may be risk of immersion, the novice may possibly ask "What kind of dress would be suited to the occasion?" the obvious answer to which would of course be a "bathing dress;" but he must not be put off with this ambiguous answer. As fashion rules at present I would recommend a Garibaldi suit for

the purposes of sun-spearing. The free-and-easy style of the "dress of the great Guerilla, will oppose the least possible resistance to the use of the "thews and sinews" in air or water.

The time and place for this form of one of the "Wild Sports of the West," which would seem to have escaped the graphic pen of Maxwell, are all important. It is highly creditable to the good taste of the lake eel, that he selects the best month of the twelve for his Whitsuntide revels. Generally between the first of June and the middle of July, days of calm and sunshine occur which faintly remind us of the brilliancy and serenity of a southern clime, even in these humid islands in which the sun alas! too often shines

"With smiles that might as well be tears,

"So faint, so sad their beaming."

During this month or six weeks however, the eel, like Mr. Curran's emancipated slave, "walks abroad in his own majesty," and displays himself in all his length and strength to the admiring eyes of those who know where to look for him. For this purpose the eel-hunter must be wide-awake and up early. If the tyro lies a-bed" till the sun burns a little hole in the blanket," as Pat has it, or waits the breakfast bell to chase away the phantoms of an empty stomach, he had better at once forego the pleasures of this amusement. The pursuit is not exactly suited to the "inner man," being strongly opposed to punctual hours of refection and a careful toilette before venturing into the morning air. Of such a pupil it may be safely predicted, he will never spear an eel well; much less make the "terror of the jungle "bite the dust," on joining the Fag an beleachs in India. There is I own a certain spice of man's primæ val instincts, which unconsciously clings to our skirts in the highest stages of civilization, necessary to the success and enjoyment of this sport. But against this ruder aspect of the pursuit are to be placed on the per contra side of the ledger the humanizing influences with which nature surrounds its practice. I would not for the best "monkey-drake" in my flybook figure before a material age as a sentimental savage, gibbering of humanity and fine feelings, with a spear in my hand. Yet I cannot help thinking there is a principle within us which finds something to admire in the prime of the year-wild scenery and the hopeful hour of dawn-quite as much as a heavy "balance sheet" or the highest quotations of "Scrip." If any branch of our art more than another tends to foster this nobler principle of our nature it is that which now engages our attention. Around none clusters a more poetic combination of circumstances, scenic and intellectual, than waits on the exercise of this pursuit; short indeed must be the memory, and defective the organization of the youthful débutant in this amusement, who standing on the heights overhanging the theatre of his immediate operations, will not recall, and feel better for the recollection, the words of Horatio to Bernado, as the night waned away before the castle of Elsinore, and which so well describe the picture before him :

In the heart-awakening light of these lines, reflecting with so much truth and simplicity the beauty of the hour and the scene, the spear brightens into refinement, and the lake below, sleeping in luminous vapour, half mist half sunshine, ceases to be the mere hunting ground of the savage. Thus viewing the prospect, and his own relation to it through the benign teachings of the poet, the spectator feels that barbarism and such an interpreter of nature can no longer co-exist. Touched by the beams of the morning sun and warmed into new life by the inspirations of poetry, the youth with his spear on the shore, becomes a symbol of the civilization of man.

But there must be more than poetry, the picturesque, and their genial influences present, to constitute a good day for sun spearing. An absolute calm and a cloudless sky must lend their aid to the undertaking. If the leaves of the Aspen Populus tremula—of which we are told, incorrectly I hope, "woemen's tongues are made;" or the purple spikelets of the quaking grass Briza mediafrom which we brush the dew as we descend to the lake, show the slightest movement, the water will scarcely be found in a proper state for our work. Assuming, however, that these natural animoscopes are true to their delicate functions-that nature, like Narcissus at the fountain, hangs her head in perfect repose, as if absorbed in the contemplation of her own works reflected in the watery mirror, we may confidently push forth our little bark from the shore. While this preparatory step is being made, I may observe that the waters which I have found best suited for this sport are situated in the midland counties of Ireland. Resting on the great central plateau of the island, these waters are generally not very deep; and some of them, as the Inniel, Owel, Lane, Shedding and parts of Derivarra, present shallow shores and extensive flats covered by not more than 10 or 15 feet of water. In these, and doubtless in many other large lakes of the island, the amusement may be practised with success. Upon one of these we are now afloat, and as the oldest of the embarkation, I suppose I must

"Shoulder my crutch, and shew how eels were won."

One of the first things I would point out to the novice, on crossing his oars, taking the spear in his hands, and standing forward in the stern of Dingey, is the extraordinary distinctness with which all objects are seen at the bottom. This is so remarkable that I intend to correct Cavendish's formula for the composition of water, and demonstrate in the next number of the Journal of Chemical Science that it is composed of hydrogen, oxygen, and sunbeams. The latter indeed, in the present instance, appear to be the predominant element in the combination. My next "wrinkle" to the tyro would be on the mode of propelling Dingey when searching for eels. This is performed in one of two ways. When a second person is employed for this purpose he sits with his face instead of his back to the spearsman; and of course reverses the usual way of using the oars―he pushes the "fins" of the little bark from, instead of

drawing them towards him. The arrangement of course secures a more perfect view of, and a better understanding with the spearsman in front. If the latter on the contrary works alone, the spear itself is used as the sole "motive power." By touching the water alternately with the heel and point, the operator gives sufficient impulse to Dingey, while looking up the game. An expert may thus give any direction and speed to the craft that the sport requires. Showmen I believe are invariably allowed the privilege of "drawing the strings," when it best suits their object and convenience, I have now the pleasing duty to sing out from the paddle box, not exactly an enemy's ship ahead, but an eel of the "right sort," which I hope to take safely into port as a prize. In size it might bear comparison perhaps with one of Mr. Carlyle's Pythons, though not exactly of the same mud species in which that distinguished but rather eccentric writer delights. It lies stretched at full length on the bottom, some dozen of yards in advance of Dingey; and as perfectly composed apparently as if Dr. Simpson had just applied the cambric and the chloroform to its nose. Now then by the lightest and gentlest touches of the spear on the water lead up Dingey till its stern stands in a perpendicular line with the eel below. All this remember must be done as gently and with as little effort as a swan oars himself about on Thames or Trent. But before giving instructions for the stroke, it may be necessary to remind the tyro that there are such things as "laws of refraction ;" and that the eel does not exactly occupy the spot which our eye takes it for granted it does. For the same reason the spear handle when let into the water seems bent or out of line. But I should hope the youthful pupil has got up these little matters sufficiently well for his "Civil Service Examinations" to save me the trouble of further boring him on the subject, or airing my optics. Making therefore the necessary allowances for distance and refraction, let down the spear gently but rapidly-non vi sed arte-to within 3 or 4 feet of the prey-he will not stir a peg-and then invoking St. George and the Dragon, strike home like a Briton! A peculiar convulsive shock, communicated through the quivering shaft of the spear, tells at once that it has penetrated a living organized being, and that the stroke has been mortal. Possibly the sensation very much resembles what would be given under similar circumstances by another member of the eel tribe, the Gymnotus electricus; but never having had the pleasure of fleshing my spear in the sides of one of these floating or swimming galvanic batteries, I cannot pretend to precision as to the fact. Take up the victim, however, gently, all unnecessary cruelty is of course avoided, and a few taps of the head of the spear against the edge of a seat, will disengage it from the prey. And here let no humanitarian turn up his eyes and hint a prosecution; for has not that eel died the epic death of a hero? a death which a Diomede or a Philoctetes might be proud to inflict or to receive from a worthy foe by the waters of Simois or Scamander? Here too is the proper place to explain more fully the dark allusions made to immersion. In his anxiety about striking