THE BROAD-NOSED EEL. 
225 
which projected from the aperture of the pipe, was caught by a man in 
his teeth, and the fish was thus extracted. 
The following story of an eel carrying off a knife and purse, though it 
occurred nearly two centuries ago, is still told by old people in the vicinity 
of Lough Corrib : — 
“ From hence (the river of Cong) an eele carried a purse of 13s. 4 d. sterling, 
and a knife, for about 16 miles, thro’ Lough Orbsen, till it was catched on the 
river of Galway, which thus happened. One William M‘Ghoill, a fisherman at 
Cong, lighted on a good eele, and, being busie about catching more, thrust his 
girdle through its guill, which had the purse and knife in it : the eele by chance 
slides into the river wdth the purse and knife.” — O’ Flaherty' s West or H-Jar 
Connazight , i. p. 49, written in 1684. Published by the Irish Archaeol. Society 
in 1846.* 
Strangford Eel. — I am disposed to consider this eel as distinct from 
the three British. I have been always of this opinion, formed at first from 
the localities (just those of spotted blenny) being different. It was on 
hard gravelly and sandy places that I found both specimens. 
1st specimen. — Length, 7^ inches. 
D. begins in. from snout (2A in. 7^). Vent. 3 in. 2 lines from 
extremity of lower jaw, nearly a of the entire length before the P. (11 
lines before to 75 behind P.) j gape not extending so far as to be on a 
vertical line with the middle of the eye. Snout short and rounded. 
“ Distance from the eye to the end of the snout equalling full twice the 
diameter of the former.” 
Snout shorter than that of A. acutirostris ; that of A. mediorostris 
(which this approaches most nearly of the three British species) is said to 
be longer. 
Sept. 16, 1835. — I obtained from under a stone at Donaghadee an eel 
same as the Strangford species. 
The Broad-nosed Eel, Anguilla latirostris, Yarrell, 
Inhabits the waters of Ireland, Loughs Neagh and Erne, the river Shan- 
non, &c. 
Specimens from the South have not come under my notice, but there 
can be little doubt of its being found there. 
“ When at Toome (County Antrim) in Sept., 1834, a kind of eel was described 
to me as very different from the species (A. acutirostris ) taken there in such abund- 
ance when entering the river Bann in autumn, on their passage from Lough 
Neagh to the sea. It w r as called f Culloch, or hunter-eel,’ and was stated to differ 
much in appearance and voracity from that species. A very intelligent fisher- 
man at another part of the lake, distinguishing it by the name of ‘ Gorb-eel,’ bore 
testimony to its voracious propensity.f He believes it to live chiefly on pollans 
{Coregonus Pollan ) , from the circumstance of having frequently known it to destroy 
these fishes when in the nets : the nets also being injured by them. He considers 
this species to be stationary in the lake, where it is sought for during summer 
with night lines, generally baited with very large worms or small perch : about 
5 lbs. is the greatest weight he has known it to attain. 
“ In Belfast market I subsequently saw quantities of this eel from the above' 
locality, when they proved to be the A. latirostris. On pointing them out to an 
angling friend, I was assured that he had seen similar eels from Lough Erne on 
sale in Enniskillen. A correspondent writing from Portumna, in allusion it is 
* Dr. Ball obtained some years since, from the Rev. Charles Mayne, an eel 
of a uniform light yellow ; it was taken at Killaloe : the colour was something 
like that of a well-bred ferret. 
f Hence probably the name “ Glut Eel,” by which it was known to Pennant. 
Q 
