St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-10-19
RURAL sAvANTs ON THE EEL.
Some Polnts Ab0at Eel Life That Sclenc
should Make Note Of.

RURAL SAvANTS ON THE EEL.
Some Points Abo.. Eel Life That Science
should Make Note OF.
81 notice that science is a little mixed
vet on the question of how cells proPl-
gate and perpetuate their species, and
can't just exactly make up its mind
how TO settle it, said a New York
sportsman, 'sbut if science should take
q few trips out along sundry waters
where the native resident bobs for cells.
and should interview one of the rural
savants on the subject. it would get
some ideas that might help it along to-
ward solving the mystery of the eel.
~ was fishing for pickerel once in
Lake Tamoka. high among the hills OF
western New York, and found that the
lake was literally alive with eels. l
asked a bewhiskered and wise-looking
citizen of the locality. who was fishing
for bullheads, how he accounted for
eels being so plentiful in that lake.
".Well, SIR said he, I've saw eels
from most everywheres-salt water.
fresh water, muddy water, clear water.
still water and running water-but ]
never see no eels from any water that
had such a coverin' of slime on 'em as
the eels in this here lake does. And
that's why cells is SO uncommon plenty
here. They can't help themselves.
There's good CROWN o jest the right
kind o. weeds on the bottom OF the
lake. and the bushes hangs SO low
on shore that they dip into the
water every here and there. So you
see the old cells has the best kind O.
rubin places, and they leave such o
tremendous coatin' of their outside
coverin' there that the young eels that
grow out of it is simply barrels full
every year. Believe it! Believe that's
the way eels breed! Why, don't
know it is? Didn't nobody never tell
you that the Shiny coatin' on eels is
| jest like the inside of a hens egg that
hatches out the chicken? Jest e'zac'ly:
only it matches eels 's.ed o chickens.
Why. everybody knows that around
here
"And found that il all the people
in that locality didn't know it they
firmly believed they did. which was
just as good. One veteran believer
that eels were hatched from eel slime
deposited on weeds and bushes. said
that when he was boy the bushes
were thicker along the shores of the
lake than they were now.
~ member one season., said he,
that somethin' got to ailin' the weeds
at the bottom O. the lake, and the old
| eels didn't seem to banker after 'em.
and consequently they come out and
rubbed themselves mOre'n usual on the
shore bushes l never seen such a
bearin' O. young eels before nor sence,
| and there never was. The bushes
hung fuller of 'em than cur'n' bushes
does o cur'n's, and before they got
| ready to drop into the water and go to
pasturin' on the bottom, the shores o
the lake looked as if "a bitin' frost had
struck it The cells had eat cv'ry Leaf
of O. every bush in sightr
| THAT is the way they account Tor
the propagation of eels in old Steuben
county. just over the line in Potter
county, Pa. and all along the AL
legheny waters, the old-time fisher
men, found, had . theory of their
own about how eel reproduction came
about. Their belief is that the hell.
bender, whose habitat is the waters OF
the Ohio basin, is the father of cells.
The hellbender has legs, is probably q
lizard, but surely is hideous, and the
female hellbender lays about one hun
dred eggs, fastened together as in 9
chain. like frogs eggs Yet men on
Allegheny waters, who claim the priv
ilege of voting and expect Christian
burial, will solemnly tell you that
from those eggs come GELS. The
strangest part of this insistence is thai
there are no cells in Allegheny waters,
nor in any waters of the Ohio or Mis-
sissippi basins, except what may have
resulted from experiments in trans
planting stock from native waters
took it upon myself once to try ane
convince believer in this hellbendel
paternity Of eels of the utter impossi
bility of it, and thought to clinch my
argument by the fact of there being
no cells in hellbender waters.
"Course there ain'tv exclaimed the
hellbendcr advocate. And why? The
minute GELS gifts their eyes on hell
benders, and it by and by breaks in on
'em that hellbeuders are their paps
away they skitter. They pull out o
them waters like the children of Israe
maxim tracks out of Egypt, and they
never come back. Why, dog on it
Hellbendcrs is stockin' all your stream:
over east, with eels, if you only know'd
| it,
Il met a plausible old fisherman
once near the headwaters of the Char
lotte river, which is one of the New
York state headwaters of the Susque
hanna river. rising within stone-tossina
| distance Of the Delaware river, in
Schoharie county, who assured mt
that the eel was at its beginning but
the egg of a water beetle. deposited in
| the shell of the fresh-water clam ol
mussel. There it hatched and became
a troublesome parasite Of the mussel
which at last opened its shell and died
whereupon the parasite, then slender
| worm, went forth into the stream
grew betimes and waxed fat, and thu.
became an eel. This amazing theory
of the development of an eel oncs
found believers among the fishermen
of the Drowned Lands of the Waikiki
in Orange county, n. Y, and Sussex
county. n. J. In the upper Delawar'
valley it is persistently maintained by
old rivcrmen that the lamprey is The
male eel, and that all other eels are f.
males: that nine of every ten eel eg6
hatchcd are silver cells or females, ant
theremaining one a male or lamprey.
N. Y. Sum-"
White Gloves.
White gloves are worn with tn:
smartest toilets for day wear. Thos'
of kid stitched with black are NOR
dressy and stylish than the chamois
which are relegated almost entirely t.
travelling and driving wear. The Ri
arritz style are much used, though th'
tight wrist with large white button
are also fashionably worn. Thos