Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-12-15
HUNTING FOR EELs.
Winter sport That Is Popular Along
the Coast of LOng
Island.

Hunting cells is the chief winter sport
among the jewellers in the stretch OF
country lying back of the a dunes on
the Long island coast. Scores Of ponds,
none Of them larger han a hundred
acres, lie scattered through that dis
trict. Naturally fresh, they have been
made salt by means of channels cut
through the combining sand banks which
admit the ocean tides. This mingling OF
the salt water with the fresh has en-
HANGED the growth and improved b
favor OF the shell fish native to b
ponds. and made of peculiarly excellent
quality the cells which abound therein
as in no other waters, fresh or salt, says
the New York Tribune.
Durihg the summer time no more ac-
tive CT alert creature dwells in water
than the eel, but it is of thin blood, and
when the water begins to chill with the
approach of cold weather the eel loses
its vim and freshness and prepares to
abandon such ~uncongenial environ
mcnt. The sand dune pond eel DOES this
by simply ~burrowing into the muddy
bottom CT its summer habitat, with the
intention of lying there dormant until
the winter is over, going down to the
average depth of a foot. then turning
its head upward to the roof of its winter
home. puncturing a hole through 1t ard
passing into lethargy with its nose at
the ventilating opening thus made.
The holes that cells bore in getting
down into the mud ard those they make
for ventilation remain to betray to the
eel hunter their alternating retreats.
Like the bear and the raccoon, the cells
go into Information laden with fat, and.
consequently, even in the months OF
their ravenous feeding were never so ht
for the table. When the cells have thus
betaken themselves to their winter
quarters the sand dune natives, being no
longer able to trap or fish for them. be-
come eel hunters.
In his boat, and equipped with a
barbed and many tined spear. the eel
| hunter passes along the edges over
the shallow places nf a pond, where the
bottom is within easy sight. The tell
tale holes discovered, he piunges the
spear vigorously into the mud between
| them, and almost invariably draws II
out with an eel impaled upon it. wrig-
Cling and squirming. for the contact Of
| the spear seems instantly to awaken the
eel to all its summer time animation.
But whether al eel comes up with the
spear or does not, the hunter turns his
head quickly and chances about the
surface of the pond in all directions.
This is that he may determine whether
he is over a paying eel bed or not. II
he is, he will know it by an infallibla
Eign.
The spear may not have brought an
eel from the mud, but if there are cells
buried anywhere near by, h shock OF
the spear plum h mud VII
startle them sunni
lethargy to cause the7 8nf1y
eject from their breathing holes Jets Of
air. These rise in bubbles to the sur
face. In the language of a SAINT dune
eel hunter, eff it was a bear thus dis
turbed from its winter snoeze, that
breath would be a snort" When the
eels send these bubbles to the surface
It is known among the hunters as
smoking" The current greeting of the
sand dune people during the eel-hunting
| season is:
How do? Herd whether the cells is
snokin' any this mornin' or not?"
BY this smoking sign the hunter
knows where to work his spear to adj
| vantage. and a good smoking bed will
frequently yield him dozens and dozens
of good, fat cells.
When the edges and shadows ofa pond
have made their yield to the hunter, he
digs new channels in the dunes, or
deepens old ones. This drains down the
water and provides hunting grounds
that were previously out of reach. This
probing for cells in the muddy lotions
of these odd ponds is not only a winter
| pastime, but an important business with
the sand dune native, for by it he sup
plies very largely the New York market Z
with cells at a season when but for this5
supply that fish would not be much irl
evidence on the city stalls, and GAIN
substantial profit from itTa profit pro
portionately greater than his summd
fishing and dredging return him. b1