EEL SWALLOWS CHISEL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3272, 4 June 1943, Page 8

EEL SWALLOWS CHISEL

HAPPENING IN CAMBRIDGE STRANGE OCCURRENCE A group of men in Paeroa were recently relating humorous incidents when one told of a strange occurrence at Cambridge a few years ago. Our friend was invited to go eeling one night in the Karapiro stream at the site of the new bridge which was then under construction. One of the party caught a very large eel and took the prize home and hung it up in a shed where it was on show for the staff of a local hotel. The eel was suspended on a hook through the upper jaw so that the

mouth was open. Our friend, it seems, picked up a cold chisel and dangled it in the eel’s mouth, but, not intending a create a' hoax accidentally let the chisel drop down the eel’s throat. However, our friend went to Hamilton that day, and on returning was met by his fisherman friend who excitedly drew his attention to the fact that on skinning and opening the eel he had discovered a cold chisel which they thought must have been dropped into the river by a workman on the bridge and swallowed by the eel before it reached the bottom.