PETROMYZON. 77 



how powerfully they can attach themselves to any 

 substance, and seem expressly constructed to give 

 them a powerful suction ; nor is the rapacity of 

 these fishes less than their power of laying hold of 

 their prey ; for when kept some time out of the 

 water, and again placed near the sturgeon, they 

 seized it a second time with much eagerness. The 

 sturgeon measured three feet eight inches ; his lit- 

 tle tormenters not a sixth part of his length, nor a 

 sixteenth of his weight." 



These are considered excellent eating, in most 

 places, but on what account, we cannot understand, 

 since, if possible, their external appearance is more 

 forbidding than many other chondropterygious fish- 

 es, which are held in utter abhorrence. 



Stewed lampreys, in England, was a dish once 

 held in high estimation. King Henry I. died of a 

 surfeit, in consequence of eating too heartily of this 

 favorite dainty. 



In the reign of Henry IV., says a writer in the 

 Conversations Lexicon, so highly were they esteem- 

 ed, " that protection was granted to such vessels as 

 might bring them in ; and his successor issued a 

 warrant to William of Nantes, for supplying him 

 and his army with this article of food, wherever 

 they might happen to march." 



In severe weather, the lamprey endeavors to 

 hide in deep places among the rocks, — but the 



