224 MALACOPTEETGII. 



that on the three days on which they perished from the cold the thermometer 

 was nearly ten degrees higher than it Jiad been for three days snccessively in the 

 preceding month, when none were known to liave suffered from it. At that 

 time the wind was South-West and moderate. When they were killed there 

 was a gale from the East, accompanied by hard frost : to the human body the 

 cold was at this time extreme and piercing, though at the period mentioned, in 

 January, it was not disagreeable. At low water a great extent of mud-banks is 

 uncovered at the part of the river where the eels were killed, and at this season 

 these fishes are believed to be imbedded in the mud ; they would seem to have 

 suffered from the intense cold arising from the rapid evaporation produced by 

 the piercing East wind. 



"Since January, 1814, such a sensation of extreme cold has not been expe- 

 rienced at Belfast, and at that time, as I am informed by Mr. Hyndman, great 

 quantities of eels met with a similar fate in the river Lagan.* They were seen 

 by him floating down the stream dead, at the long bridge in this town. It is 

 most probably in reference to 1814 that Mr. Templeton has remarked in his 

 Catalogue of Irish Vertebrate Animals, that ' gi-eat numbers of eels mhabiting the 

 shallow watery mud on the shore of Belfast Lough were killed during a severe 

 winter. 't It is worthy of remark, that at the time just mentioned the wind was 

 also easterly. In the Meteorological Report for Jan., 1814, published in the Bel- 

 fast Magazine, it is observed, ' The continuance of the wind in the East for a 

 longer time than usual has produced such a degree of cold as the oldest person 

 in Ireland cannot remember. Notwithstanding the rise of the tide, a sheet of ice 

 has covered the Bay of Belfast, strong enough to enable people to walk about 

 with perfect safety over the channel, and full half a mile from the quays. Lough 

 Neagh has also been so much frozen as to allow people on horseback to ride into 

 Ram's Island, situated two miles from the shore.' I have been credibly informed 

 that at the same period laden carts were taken over the ice to the island, and 

 that some sportsmen of the neighbourhood had a drag or trail hunt upon the lake, 

 and followed the hounds on horseback. 



" A lighter, when coming to Belfast on the 6th or 7th of the present month, on 

 breaking the ice at a part of the river where the banks are not uncovered to the same 

 extent at low water as where the eels were chiefly killed, exposed a number of 

 them, which, though not dead, were so weak as to be unable to offer any resist- 

 ance, and were lifted into the vessel. On the days which proved fatal to the eels 

 here great numbers were likewise found dead in the bay at Dundalk. 



" The minimum thermometer at the Belfast Library indicated on the morning of 



January 7, 1841 . . 19.00 ) 



— 8, — . . 18.50 [ Wind South-West ; moderate. 



— 9, — . . 18.50 ) 



bruai 



ry 6, 



— 



. 27.75 







7, 



— 



. 27.75 



— 



8, 



— 



, . 27.50 



Wind very high from the East ; dry. 



" Donegal Square, Belfast, Feb., 1841." 



Eels have on several occasions been the means of cutting off the supply 

 of water to clwelling-houses in Belfast, by entering the pipes ; and during 

 an extensive fire which occurred here, on the night of cSth March, 1846, a 

 fire-engine was suddenly stopped in the midst of its labours to extinguish 

 the flames, and the hose eventually burst, in consequence of an eel about 

 18 inches in length completely stopping up the pipe at the extremity of 

 the hose, where it was held by the fireman. A portion of the eel's head, 



* About the middle of February, 1855, the frost was so intense that great 

 numbers of eels were found dead in the Lagan, near Belfast ; and Lough Neagh 

 was so completely frozen that many people walked from the mainland to Ram's 

 Island. — Ed. 



t Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. new series. 



