The progress., 1904-01-16
HCsTINo FOR EELs.
vvistsr Sport That u Popular Alons
the Coast Of Long
Island.

Hunting cells is the chief winter sport
among the dwellers In the stretch OF
country lying back Of the sand dunes on
the Long island coast. Scores of ponds,
none of them larger than hundred
acres, lie scattered through that dis
trict. Naturally fresh. they have been
made salt by means of channels cut
through the confining sand banks which
admit the ocean tides. This mingling of
the salt water with the fresh has en-
hanced the growth and improved the
flavor of the shell fish native to the
ponds, and made of peculiarly excellent
quality the eels which abound therein
as in no other waters, fresh or salt. says
the New York Tribune.
During the summer time no more ac-
tive or 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 friskiness and prepares to
abandon such uncongenial environ
ment. The sand dune pond eel does this
by simply burrowing into the muddy
bottom of its summer habitat, with the
intention of lying there dormant until
the winter is over, going down to the
average depth of foot, then turning
its head upward to the roof of its winter
home, puncturing hole through 1t and
passing into lethargy with its nose at
the ventilating opening thus made.
The holes that eels bore in getting
down into the mud apdsthose they make
for ventilation remain TO betray to the
eel hunter their alternating retreats
Like the bear and the raccoon, the eels
go into Information laden with fat, and,
consequently. even in the months OF
their ravenous feeding were never SO fit
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 and over
the shallow places nf pond, where the
bottom is within easy sight The tell
tale holes discovered, he plunges the
spear vigorously into the mud between
them, and almost invariably draws 1t
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 an eel comes up with the
spear or does not, the hunter turns his
head quickly and glances about the
surface of the pond in all directions.
This is that he may determine whether
he is over paying eel bed or not. If
he is, he will know it by an infallible
sign.
The spear may not have brought an
eel from the mud, but if there are eels |
buried anywhere near by, the shock of
the spear plunging into the mud will
startle them sufficiently from their
lethargy to cause them to instantly
eject from their breathing holes jets of
air. These rise in bubbles to the sur
face. In the language of sand dune
eel hunter, "if it was bear thus dis
turbed from it's winter snooze, that
breath would be 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? Heerd whether the cells Is
'mokin' any this mornin' or not?"
BY this smoking" sign the hunter
Knows where to work his spear to ad-
,antage, and good smoking bed will
frequently yield him dozens and dozens
If good, fat cells.
When the edges and shadows of pond
rave made their yield to the hunter, he
ligs new channels in the dunes or
leepens old ones. This drains down the
water and provides hunting grounds
hat were previously out of reach. This
robing for eels in the muddy bottoms
If these odd ponds is not only winter
,astime, but an important business with
he sand dune native, for by it he sup
lilies very largely the New York market
With eels at season when but for this {
upply that fish would not be much in
on the city stalls, and gains
ubstantial profit from it-a profit pro-
greater than his summer {
lshing and dredging return him.