Strange so lowly a thing should have so extraordinary a scientific name ! This water sarpint is hardly fair game for so dainty and epicurean a hunter as the angler ; but since Walt Whitman has done him up with his eel-spear in the form of Great American poetry, we are not justified in excluding the Eel from our list of fishes. Eels are practically taken with the eel-pot, and by torch-light with the eel-spear, or with set lines. They feed voraciously on all kinds of animal matter, fresh or stale ; thrive equally well in salt or fresh water; surmount rapids and rocks by serpentine crawling among the crevices; sometimes migrate by night overland from stream to stream, or enter kitchen-gardens, for a change to vegetable diet.Being abundant, savory, and nutritious, they are sought for by boys, tramps, and amateur negro fishermen in the soft bottoms of our bays and creeks during the greater part of the year. To the angler their capture affords no sport and is deemed a laborious, lowly business.

For tackle use flaxen line, protected with gimp or wire near the hook ; hooks, from Nos. 7 to 9 ; let sinker touch bottom. Bait with worm, frog, clam, shrimp, flesh, etc.