The Portland daily press., 1871-02-18

fall me than going down in the performance
oil duty. chung for time to liked obieoks
on deck, and watched the waves, and saw the
storm take them by the top and carry them
away in foam. Atlength the helm was riabt.
ed, and the ship, answering to it, was brought
round to face the waves. Our speed sank
from ten to two knots, and for three days wa
had head wind dead against us.
REGARDING EELs.-The only reptile We
have in this locality, in any wholesale quanti-
ty, is the eel. Its bite is not deadly except to
fish-hook, and after being once bitten, we
never knew hook to recover. Eels live best
in water, though one will manage 10 survive
an hour or two in pan of hot fat over hot
coal fire. But water is their best hold, and
they delight to root round in the mud at the
bottom of the sea. An eel will out root hog
and let him pick his ground.
Eels vary in size as much as darnipg nee.
dies, and some are not much larger when they
first conclude to be eels. A lot of very infan.
tile eels playing in pool of water look as
much like vermicelli soup as anything we re-
member. As they are not called upon to die
at a very early age, their life is of great
length. We have known it to be over four
feet. About good sized eel to describe, is
the Bologna sausage size. Taper one end a
little for tail, cut cash in the other for a
mouth, and hang on pair of ears about two
inches loug, and you have an eel at rest We
are not quick enough with q pen to describe
them in motion, but any one who has ever
seen Gen. F. E. Spinner's autograph on q
green back, caa get very good idea from
that. Next to flea or a fash of lightning,
you don't find anything much liveier than an
eel. 1n catching them all you have to do is
to hook and pull them to the top of the water
and they will do the rest. As long as we re-
member it we shall never forget the first eel
we caught. We we're sitting on the cap Of
the wharf with our line in the water some
fifteen feet below us, our hook baited with
CLAIMS head, according to Robbins) when we
felt bite and pulled. As our hook came to
the surface, an eel made his appearance climb.
ing up our line, hand over hand with great
speed, and shot into the air ten feet above our
head and fell upon the wharf, where for if
teen minutes he executed such steps as would
have drawn tears from the eyes of French
dancing master. We then grasped it to get
our hook but it slid through our hand like
dose of quicksilver, leaving it covered with
coating OF slime which we have since learned
is the basis of Spauding's celebrated Glue
We cut off that eel and found our line much
knotted and tangled. We counted eighty-sev-
en- different kinds of knots, If there is any
one who doubts this story, we can soon con-
vince him of its truth, by showing him the
exact spot where we sat when we caught that
eel!
Any one going into the business of trapping
eels for the meat or SKINS which by plugging
the eyes are handy to have in family. had
better discard the line and provide himself
with an eel spear, which is as deadly at a short
range of twenty feet as the needle gun. Spear
ing eels is dreadful uncertain business, how
ever. If mar is ccsssfu he is generally
lucky. Mike Keaton was formerly among eels
what Gordon Cummns was among lions; but
Michael has left us, and no more prods his
spear into his favorite game. But he is not
forgotten, and his saying-"there's eels under
them fences, Mr.. Furgerson"-wll be remem.
hered as long as eels continue to wiegle.
AS an article of food, ees are a mooted
question. A person either likes them or he
don't; there is no half way; he is never con-
servative in this matter Allowing one rel
ishes them, we should say THAT from two to
three feet would suffice Tor meal. Michael
was won't to tell of man who went into one
of our restaurants and partook sparngly Of
eels. "Talk about eating EEL" said Mike,
"arter he got done, put the back bones to-
gether and measured them, and he had eat over
five feet of choice piecesw Barring frozen
ear, there is nothing that will peel handler
than an eel. Cut the skin rouud the neck,
just under the ear; take the head in your
mouth, holding it firmly with your teeth hlv-
ing on pair ofmittens, grasp the eel at the
neck, give good pull and he will roll out of
his skin as easily as you can roll out OF bed.
Our crowded columns forbid US say ing any
more about this interesting fish, for we could
write abont ees to any length, because they
are such very eel-astic subject-Betast
Journal