SEA LAMPREY. 389 



similar opinion has been expressed in England by a witness 

 in an inquiry before a Parliamentary Commission on the Salmon 

 Fisheries in the year 1861. It was then shewn that under 

 particular circumstances Salmon as well as Lampreys tasted 

 strongly of tar. The witness said, "We asked the fishermen 

 about it, and they told us that there was a little ripple of 

 tar coming down into the Severn, and that must have been 

 the reason (with the Salmon.) We Avere rather angry with 

 the fishermen, and then thought they had put these Salmon 

 into a boat Avhere tar had been emptied; but they said no, 

 the tar in the river must have been the reason. We had 

 two Lampreys returned that tasted very badly of tar: we 

 found out the reason of that. Lampreys have mouths like 

 suckers, and live by suction; and they will suck tightly to 

 anything. The boats had been newly tarred, and these 

 Lampreys sucked on to the boat, and from that they were 

 all tar. I am quite certain that the Lampreys did not get 

 the tar out of the water, but out of the boat. These tarred 

 fish were confined to one year." It is not so certain that the 

 vegetable tar attracts these fish as that coal tar drives them 

 away; and, accordingly, it has been noticed that since the 

 time when the sea-going boats have used the latter no Lampreys 

 have laid hold upon them. 



But there is another use to which the mouth is applied, 

 and concerning which no doubt can exist, but by which the 

 use of the singular armature and situation of the teeth is to 

 be explained. The whole of the interior arch of the mouth is 

 studded with regular rows of teeth, each one of which on a 

 broad base is furnished with one or two apparently reversed 

 points; and the teeth which are the most distant and concealed 

 are larger than the others, and more effectually crowded with 

 these points. For simply biting, as in other fishes, they are 

 useless; but when the breadth of the open mouth is brought 

 into contact with the surface of a fish on which the Lamprey 

 has laid hold, by producing a vacuum, these roughly-pointed 

 teeth are brought forward in a manner to be able to act on 

 it by a circular motion, and a limited space on the skin of 

 the captive prey is thus rasped into a pulp and swallowed, 

 so that a hole is made which may perhaps penetrate to the 

 bones, and from the torture of which the utmost energy of 



