386 



SEA LAMPREY. 



in the middle of tlie ocean. We have ah'eady given an 

 account of some of the supposed actions of the now-recognised 

 Remora, which is a very different fish from that of which 

 we now speak; but ordinary observation had shewn that the 

 Lamprey also was in the habit of laying hold of a ship so 

 firmly as not to be easily separated from it; and, without 

 attending to the difference in the mode of acting, or considering 

 that different fishes might possess the same power, the ancients 

 advanced to the conclusion that where the effect was the 

 same the fishes themselves could not be different. Nor does 

 it appear that this mistake has been altogether corrected, nor 

 the superstition or hallucination been obliterated, at a very 

 modern date; for in Dodsley's "Annual Register" for 1778, 

 is an account of the Paklara, which may be either the 

 Remora or Lamprey, from an abstract of the Travels of the 

 Abbe Fortis, who, after referring to the ancient stories of 

 Anthony and Caligula, informs the reader of what happened 

 within his own knowledge. He says that when he was at 

 sea the steersman ordered the sailors to come abaft and kill 

 a fish which he called Paklara; and in reply to the Abbe's 

 inquiry why he did so, he was informed that it was the habit 

 of this fish to lay hold of the rudder with its teeth, and by. so 

 doing it retarded the progress of the ship so sensibly that 

 the steersman was aware of it in a moment, even without 

 seeing the fish itself. This man spoke of the Paklara as a 

 common fish, which in shape resembled a Conger, but in 

 length did not exceed a foot and a half. 



The fact, however, of the knowledge of the Lamprey by 

 the ancients, notwithstanding the uncertainty arising from 

 confounding it with others, appears without doubt from the 

 description which Oppian gives, although under the name of 

 Echeneis he confounds the Remora with the Lamprey, to 

 which latter only his particulars can be applied. 



"Slender his shape, his length a cubit ends; 

 No beauteous spot the gloomy race commends; 

 An Eel-like clinging kind of dusky looks; 

 His jaws display tenacious rows of hooks; 

 But in strange power the puny fish excels, 

 Beyond the boasted art of magic spells." 



When, however, the Lamprey had come under the notice 

 of another class of observers in its yearly migration into fresh 



