See MURENA, Ichthyology Index. EEL-Fishing. See BOBBING and SNIGGLING.

The silver eel may be caught with several sorts of baits, as powdered beef, garden worms, minnows, hens guts, fish garbage, &c. The most proper time for taking them is in the night, fastening your line to the bank sides, with your laying hook in the water: or a line may be thrown with good store of hooks, baited and plumb'd, with a float to discover where the line lies, that they may be taken up in the morning.

Microscopic EELS. See ANIMALCULE, No. 8.

EELS in vinegar, are similar to those in four paste. The taste of vinegar was formerly thought to be occasioned by the biting of these little animals, but that opinion has been long justly exploded. Mentzelius says, he has observed the actual transformation of these little creatures into flies.

EEL Spear, a forked instrument with three or four jagged teeth, used for catching eels: that with the four teeth is best, which they strike into the mud at the bottom of the river, and if it strike against any eels it never fails to bring them up.