74 NATURAL HISTORY 
to have seen, formerly, several beautiful green da. 
certi on the sunny sandbanks near Farnham, in 
Surrey ; and Ray admits there are such in Ireland. 
LETTER XVIII. 
Selborne, July 27, 1768. 
Dear Str,—I recetvep your obliging and com- 
municative letter of June the 28th while I was on 
a visit at a gentleman’s house, where | had neither 
books to turn to, nor Jeisure to sit down, to return 
you an answer to many queries, which I wanted to 
resolve in the best manner I am able. 
A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, 
but could find no such fish as the gasterosleus pun- 
gitius ; he found the gasterosteus aculeatus in plen- 
ty. This morning, in a basket, I packed a little 
earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some stick- 
lebacks, some lamperns, some bullheads, but 1 
could procure no minnows. ‘This basket will be in 
Fleet-street by eight this evening, so I hope Ma. 
zel will have them fresh and fair to-morrow morn- 
ing. I gave some directions, in a letter, to what 
particulars the engraver should be attentive. 
Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was with- 
in a reasonable distance of Ambresbury, I sent a 
servant over to that town and procured several liv. 
ing specimens of LoacueEs, which he brought, safe 
and brisk, in a glass decanter. ‘They were taken 
in the gulleys that were cut for watering the mead. 
ows. From these fishes (which measured from 
two to four inches in length) I took the following 
