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 S'r. _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.