DUBLIN EEL. 329 



which the snout was shorter than that which he takes for 

 the A. acutirostris ; which circumstance has produced in me 

 the supposition that the former is the kind which British 

 naturalists have known by the name of Sharp-nosed Eel, and 

 that the Sharp-nosed Eel of this gentleman is in truth the 

 species we designate the Dublin Eel. 



The length of the specimen was two feet four inches; the 

 body stout and round, broad over the back; head wide, 

 rather flat, sloping forward to the projecting snout, which is 

 narrow, slightly rounded above; gape moderate; under jaw 

 longest, wide, but thin; the nasal tendrils wider asunder than 

 in a Conger of the same size, and more slender, longer than 

 in the Sharp-nosed Eel. Eye rather small, in a cavity, and 

 before it a prominence just below the nostril. Cheeks full. 

 Length of the body from snout to vent eleven inches and 

 three fourths, from snout to the opening of the gills two 

 inches and five eighths; length of the pectoral fin an inch 

 and one fourth, more extended than in the sharp-nosed species, 

 and not so round. Teeth in both jaws thickly set, a bed of 

 them of considerable breadth in front of the lower jaw and 

 in front of the palate; tongue free. Lateral line high at first, 

 sloping to the middle at about half the length. Dorsal fin 

 thick at the root, wide where it joins the anal to form the 

 tail, and each of these fins posteriorly wider than the body. 

 Colour brownish green, whitish below; the tail dark at the 

 border. 



VOL. IV 2 U 



