y be; and that the Hee and the She _Eele_ may be distinguished by
their fins.

And others say, that _Eeles_ growing old, breed other _Eeles_ out of
the corruption of their own age, which Sir _Francis Bacon_ sayes,
exceeds not ten years. And others say, that _Eeles_ are bred of a
particular dew falling in the Months of _May_ or _June_ on the banks of
some particular Ponds or Rivers (apted by nature for that end) which in
a few dayes is by the Suns heat turned into _Eeles_. I have seen in the
beginning of _July_, in a River not far from _Canterbury_, some parts
of it covered over with young _Eeles_ about the thickness of a straw;
and these _Eeles_ did lye on the top of that water, as thick as motes
are said to be in the Sun; and I have heard the like of other Rivers,
as namely, in _Severn_, and in a _pond_ or _Mere_ in _Stafford-shire_,
where about a set time in Summer, such small _Eeles_ abound so much,
that many of the poorer sort of people, that inhabit near to it, take
such _Eeles_ out of this Mere, with sieves or sheets, and make a kind
of _Eele-cake_ of them, and eat it like as bread. And _Gesner_ quotes
venerable _Bede_ to say, that in _England_ there is an Iland called
_Ely_, by reason of the innumerable number of _Eeles_ that breed in it.
But that _Eeles_ may be bred as some worms and some kind of _Bees_ and
_Wasps_ are, either of dew, or out of the corruption of the earth,
seems to be made probable by the _Barnacles_ and young _Goslings_ bred
by the Suns heat and the rotten planks of an old Ship, and hatched of
trees, both which are related for truths by _Dubartas_, and our learned
_Cambden_, and laborious _Gerrard_ in his _Herball_.

It is said by _Randelitius_, that those _Eeles_ that are bred in
Rivers, that relate to, or be neer to the Sea, never return to the
fresh waters (as the _Salmon_ does alwaies desire to do) when they have
once tasted the salt water; and I do the more easily believe this,
because I am certain that powdered Bief is a most excellent bait to
catch an _Eele_: and Sr. _Francis Bacon_ will allow the _Eeles_ life
to be but ten years; yet he in his History of Life and Death, mentions
a _Lamprey_, belonging to the _Roman_ Emperor, to be made tame, and so
kept for almost three score yeers; and that such useful and pleasant
observations were made of this _Lamprey_, that _Crassus_ the Oratour
(who kept her) lamented her death.

It is granted by all, or most men, that _Eeles_, for about six mon