THE SHAKP-NOSED EEL. 223 



point of South ; but if a sudden change occurs they -will cease to migrate 

 for the night. I saw the largest eel taken that had been caught for ten 

 years ; it was 3 feet 7 inches long, and weighed 7-!r lbs. On the night of 

 the 24th September, when I was present, 3000 eels were taken in the first 

 net, and 1500 on the same night in the next three, Avhich are in juxta- 

 position. 



The young eels seem in some places to form an article of food.* Dr. 

 Ball states that they are eaten boiled in milk, or pressed into a sort of 

 cheese. I was told, in Oct., 1(S39, by R. Barklie, Esq., that he had 

 seen a water-spaniel go for two or three days to the base of the Fall at 

 Ballyshannon, at low water, and feed greedily on the young eels waiting 

 there to ascend the rock. The same gentleman informed me that a dog 

 belonging to Dr. Casement of Larne went out regularly to Larne Lough 

 to fish, and when he set his foot on a fluke Avould lay hold of it. He also 

 caught fish otherwise than by " tramping," as this is called, a practice 

 which Mr. B. thinks the dog had acquired by going out with boys intent 

 on that object. 



Mr. Bernard Meenan informs me that he has sometimes got a ton 

 weight taken in one night, from diff"erent weirs on the river Lagan : he 

 considers them even better than the Toome eels, and those taken in the 

 bay as good. So many as 10 stones weight have been taken in Belfast 

 Bay during a day's fishing by one person, who used baskets resembling 

 lobster pots, baited with small fish, and pulled them up fi'equently. 



JSels are caught in the river flowing through Galway by garbage thrown 

 into it, round which they congregate. The water being clear, they are 

 seen, and caught simply by a hook fastened to the end of a long rod, as 

 we witnessed, 1834. 



This species has been sent alive for the last few years to London. The 

 young eels only are knoAni to ascend the Bann. 



The following communication was published by me in Annals of Nat. 

 Hist. vol. vii. p. 15 : — 



" Eels killed by frost. — Although it is well known to naturalists that the 

 eel, otherwise tenacious of life, cannot bear excessive cold, I conceive that 

 the following facts upon the subject, though by no means so satisfactory as 

 could be wished, are worthy of being placed on record. On the 6th, 7th, and 

 8th of the present month (February, 1841), great quantities of this fish, in a dead 

 state, floated down the river Lagan to the quays at Belfast. Here, upon these 

 days, and along the course of the river within the tide-way, collecting dead eels 

 was quite an occupation at low water, and to the numerous loiterers about the 

 quays proved in some cases more productive for the time than the ' chance 

 jobs ' by which they gain their livelihood. One individual earned his two shil- 

 lings for nearly a bushel-full, f and another, selling them at the same rate, gained 

 five shillings for what he collected at the fall of a tide. Three examples sent me 

 by my friend Edmund Getty, Esq., were the common eel {AngiiiUa acutirostris, 

 Yarr.), in excellent condition, and in all respects of ordinary appearance ; one 

 was about a foot, the others were two feet, in length. They were found dead of 

 all sizes up to the largest. 



" The only experiment I heard of being made on these eels was that four of 

 them, of gradations in size from a foot to two feet in length, were placed in 

 water warmed to a high summer temperature, to see if they would revive ; but, 

 as may be anticipated of such a proceeding, none of them exhibited any signs of 

 life. A highly interesting fact connected with this fatality among the eels is, 



* Ball's Lecture; also Boule's Nat. Hist. p. 191. 



f The price of eels in our market is three-pence or four-pence per pound. 



