And Rondeletius says, he has seen Eels cling together like dew-worms.
And others say, that Eels, growing old, breed other Eels out of the
corruption of their own age; which, Sir Francis Bacon says, exceeds not
ten years. And others say, that as pearls are made of glutinous
dewdrops, which are condensed by the sun's heat in those countries, so
Eels 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 clays are, by the sun's heat, turned into Eels: and
some of the Ancients have called the Eels that are thus bred, the
offspring of Jove. I have seen, in the beginning of July, in a river not far
from Canterbury, some parts of it covered over with young Eels, about
the thickness of a straw; and these Eels did lie 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, where they are called Yelvers; and in
a pond, or mere near unto Staffordshire, where, about a set time in
summer, such small Eels abound so much, that many of the poorer sort
of people that inhabit near to it, take such Eels out of this mere with
sieves or sheets; and make a kind of Eel-cake of them, and eat it like as
bread. And Gesner quotes Venerable Bede, to say, that in England there
is an island called Ely, by reason of the innumerable number of Eels
that breed in it.
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