THE SHARP-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 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, which 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 w r as told, in Oct., 1839, by It. 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 would 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 different 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 TO 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 frequently. 
Eels 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 known to ascend the Bann. 
The following communication was published by me in Annals of Nat. 
Hist. vol. vii. p. 75 
“ 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 (. Anguilla 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. 
