135 
The blind-eel is well known to the line fishermen, and when one 
is hooked it at once rolls itself round and round, and tangles the line 
most hopelessly. The only procedure is to cut the line and drop 
the creature back into the sea. Expressions of disgust when one is 
hooked are universal. As an instance I am tempted to relate the 
following episode. The only time blind-eels were taken in the trawl 
occurred off Timaru, when three examples were hauled aboard from a 
depth of 21-29 fathoms. They were covered with the characteristic 
shme, which adhered to everything, and it was with difficulty that 
I prevented the men from shovelling them overboard. I placed 
the three into a bucket, and had considerable trouble in keeping them 
there. First one and then another would glide out, sometimes head 
sometimes tail first, and I could not induce any one else to touch 
them. I next introduced formalin and water, and in a very short 
time the whole became a thick, viscid, sickening mass. The creatures, 
being irritated by the formalin acting on the skin or entering their 
gill-openings, made savage attacks on each other, drawing blood 
freely, which coloured the slimy mass as they writhed through it. 
It was on such occasions that I was able to witness the eversion of the 
lingual teeth, and to ascertain exactly how the creatures seized and 
ate their prey. All the animals had received scars, and one of them 
shows that it had been bitten no less than fifteen times by the other 
two. Not only did they attack each other in the slime-mass, but 
they would raise their heads above the surface, open their mouths, 
and protrude their teeth-studded tongues; the two lateral halves 
would then be widely separated and gnashed together again, possibly 
in agony. By the time the creatures were dead it was nearly dark, 
and I placed the bucket with its thick slimy contents in a position 
usually occupied by another bucket, wherein I kept clean water for 
the purpose of rinsing my hands after immersion in formalin. It 
appears that, in the dim light, the captain, thinking to similarly 
rinse his hands, plunged them among the blind-eels. The dis- 
gusting and loathsome sensation proved too much for the peace 
of his stomach, and a visit to the vessel’s side was the imme- 
diate result. By the following morning the slime had lost all 
its viscosity, and I lifted out the blind-eels in a very clean 
state. I then discovered a number of parasitic leeches attached 
to them: these have been provisionally determined, by Pro- 
fessor Benham, as species of Trachelobdella Diesing (Calliobdella Van 
Beneden). 
The average length of an adult specimen is 680 mm. (27 in.), and 
the colour varies from blue to bluish violet. Some examples show 
irregular white spots and markings; the ventral fold and the margin 
of the tail may also be white. 
' Taken at Station 35, off Timaru, at a depth of 21-29 fathoms ; 
also in a meshing-net at the Chatham Islands, where the Maori name 
is “ tuere.” 
