Miscellaneous, 237 



During the 5 th, 6th and 7th of February, the ground being co- 

 vered with snow and the weather intensely cold, the boatmen in the 

 vicinity of Passage, Monkstown and Carrigaloe captured consider- 

 able numbers of the Conger Eel {Anguilla Conger, Linn.), of all 

 sizes, varying from a foot to five and six feet in length. Many of 

 them were left on the strand as the tide receded, some dead, but the 

 greater number alive ; others were followed in boats as they swam 

 near the surface of the water and killed with sticks, whilst many 

 committed suicide by swimming up on the strand. In a similar way 

 they were caught from Hop Island to Ringaskiddy, a distance of five 

 miles on the west side of the Lee, and from Smith Barry's Bay to 

 the limekiln opposite Monkstown (about three miles) on the east 

 side ; those which were taken on Hop Island seem to have been 

 washed up by the tide, as they were dead. 



It appears strange, that a fish like the eel, usually found at the bot- 

 tom of the river, should be affected by the cold, when one reflects, 

 that the depth of the river varies in some of these places from forty 

 to sixty feet — the water here, though not quite so salt as the sea, is 

 yet very salt. 



One individual caiight as many as thirty-seven ; but it would be 

 impossible to form any idea of the numbers taken, as immense quan- 

 tities were picked up by the boatmen and others as they walked 

 along the strand. As such a long time elapsed before I heard of the 

 circupastance, I had no opportunity of seeing any of them, but there 

 can be no doubt that they were the Conger Eel. 



Dr. Scott of Cove was kind enough to give me, from his meteoro^ 

 logical journal, the temperature and the direction of the wind about 

 and during the time of the event. 



9. 40 33 No snow-falls. North-east. 



Believe me. Sir, yours truly, 



Francis M. Jennings. 

 William Thompson, Esq., Belfast. 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF ANEMONE RANVN CULQIDES, 

 BY THE REV. W. HINCKS, M.A., F.L.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — Wishing to add to my herbarium a truly wild spe- 

 cimen of the very rare Anemone ranunculoides, I lately devoted a day 

 to an excursion with a friend to the neighbourhood, where alone, I 

 believe, in these islands, it is now reported to be found wild. 



Hudson gives the station " near King's Langley, Herts ;" Mr. Geo, 



