78 LAMPREY. Class IV. 



which enables them to adhere the more ftrongly to 

 the ftones, as their cuflom is, and which they do 

 fo firmly as not to be drawn off without fome diffi- 

 culty. 



We have heard of one weighing three pounds, 

 which was taken out of the EJk % adhering to a (lone 

 of twelve pounds weight, fufpended at its mouth, 

 from which it was forced with no fmall pains. 



There are in the mouth twenty rows of fmall 

 teeth, difpofed in circular orders, and placed far 

 within. 



The color is dufky, irregularly marked with dir- 

 ty yellow, which gives the fifh a difagreeable look. 

 Not the We believe that the ancients were unacquainted 

 with this fifh ; fo far is certain, that which Doclor 

 Arbuthnot^ and other learned men, render the word 

 lamprey, is a fpecies unknown in our feas, being 

 the murana of Ovid, Pliny, and others, for which 

 we want an Englijh name. This fifh, the Lupus 

 (our BafTe) and the Myxo* (a fpecies of mullet) 

 formed that pride of Roman banquets, the Tripa- 

 tinam f , fo called according to Arbuthnot, from 

 their being ferved up in a machine with three bot- 

 toms. 



* Perhaps the fpecies called by Rondehtius* Muge % and 

 Maxon. de Pifc. P. 295. 



f Atque ut luxu quoque aliqua contingat auttoritas figlinis, 

 Tripati?iam, inquit Fenejlella^ appellabatur, fumma casnarum 

 lautitia, una erat Muranarum, altera Luporum, tertia Myxonis 

 pifcis. Plinii Hift. Nat. lib. XXXV. c. 12. 



The 



