EELS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have read your article on " Eels " with the greatest interest, especially as I can claim to have had, what I think few have had, a tame eel. At my old home, Bury Hill, Dorking, there is an artificial lake of about eighteen acres. I and my sisters had an old nurse who had been in the Barclay family for over forty years, and who had a wonderful power with all animals. We were allowed to keep in our nursery almost any animal ad lib. —hedgehogs, dormice, squirrels. We daily fed the ducks, swans, and geese on .the lake at a shallow place, and they came at our call and ate out of our hands. One morning, to our intense surprise, a black eel put its head out and began to eat the bread we had thrown in the water. Old Rich, the nurse, immediately began to feed it, and it ate out of her hand without any fear, and used to come daily to be fed with the ducks. One day an uncle (whom I fear we never forgave) caught our eel, and doubtless ate it, as was often done with the eels in the lake. If any one can give another instance of a tame eel it would be most interesting.
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