179
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
FISHES.
Conger Eels on the Essex Coast in the Seventeenth
Century.—In the Philosophical Transactions for 1698, I find1 a
communication from Samuel Dale (1659 ?—1738), the apothecary
and botanist, of Braintree, recording the occurrence on our
Essex coast of several Conger Eels (Conger vulgaris) of what he
regarded as a very unusual size :—
Mr. Daniel, an apothecary, of Colchester, lately told me [he says] of one (if I
misremember not) that amounted to 27 0128 pounds. . . .
Yet to find very large eels ... is that which is rare and seldom (in England,
at leastwise) to be found ; and, therefore, having lately met with relations of two
very large eels, caught upon the coast of Essex, I thought the communication
thereof to the curious would not be altogether unacceptable.
These both had all the characterizing of the Eel, and wanted those barbies
which the Eel sometimes hath not, but the Conger is never without.
The first was taken somewhere about Cricksea, and, for its rarity, was made
present of to a noble Peer of this Realm. Its length, from tip of the nose to
tail's end, was five foot eight inches and in circumference it was two and
twenty inches ; but, as for the weight, no persons could inform me what it was,
though, perhaps, it might not exceed twenty pound. . . .
But those [dimensions] were far exceeded by one lately caught in Maldon
Channel, about a mile below the town, the length of which was seven foot ; the
circumference, seven and twenty inches ; the weight, six and thirty pounds ;
and out of its belly was taken five pounds of fat. Its skin was black and, being
stuff, is still preserved at Maldon for the inspection of the curious. This fish was
supposed to have been brought down thither by the great floods at the breaking
of the last frost, because of a hurt it had on its back ; which the fisherman which
caught it told me he did conjecture it might be from some mill it must pass
through.
Had it been my good fortune to have had the knowledge of this monstrous
eel soon enough, I would have gone over to Maldon to have seen it opened, it
being a fit subject in which to examine the parts of Generation, so much
controverted.
Dale was, as a matter of fact, entirely mistaken in thinking
that these Congers were very large. Much larger specimens
have been met with in Essex in later times, as will be seen
on reference to Dr. Laver's book.2 Nevertheless, Dale's note
seems worth re-printing, as being, in all probability, the earliest
definite scientific record of the occurrence of the Conger in
Essex.—Miller Christy, Chignal St. James, Chelmsford.
1 Philos. Trans., xx., pp. 90-2 (1699).
2 The Mammals, Reptilis, & Fishes of Essex, p. 115 (1898).