224 
MALACOPTERYGII. 
that on the three days on which they perished from the cold the thermometer 
was nearly ten degrees higher than it had been for three days successively in the 
preceding month, when none were known to have 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 ‘ great numbers of eels inhabiting the 
shallow watery mud on the shore of Belfast Lough were killed during a severe 
winter. ’f It is worthy of remark, that at the time just mentioned the wind wfas 
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 ) 
February 6, — . . 27.75 j 
— 7, — . . 27.75 > Wind very high from the East ; dry. 
— 8, — . . 27.50 ) 
“ Donegal Square, Belfast, Feb., 1841.” 
Eels have on several occasions been the means of cutting off the supply 
of water to dwelling-houses in Belfast, by entering the pipes ; and during 
an extensive fire which occurred here, on the night of 8th 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. 
f Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. new series. 
