385 



PETROMYZON. 



The body lengthened, smooth; head rounded, and continnous with 

 the body; mouth circular, closing longitudinally, armed with tooth-like 

 processes in rows. An opening on the top of the head; seven separate 

 openings of the gills arranged along each side. No Doctoral or ventral 

 fins; dorsal, anal, and caudal fins without rays. 



SEA LAMPREY. 



Lampetra, Lamin-eda, Jonston; p. 117, PL 21, f. 5. 



Willoughby; p. 105, PI. G 2. 



Petromyzon mririnus, Linn^us. Bloch; PI. 77. Cuvier. 



« " Donovan; PL 81. Jenyns; Manual, p. 520. 



" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 163. 



« « Yakrell ; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 598. ■ 



" lamprole, Lacepede. 



This fisli could not fail to be knov/n to the Greeks and 

 Eoraans, for it is common and of large size and excellency in 

 the Tiber; but much obscurity has hung over it in consequence 

 of the variety of names which were applied to it, and the 

 confusion that followed the application of these names to other 

 kinds of fish in consequence of some perhaps distant similarity 

 of form or habit: a likeness in the last-named particular, even 

 when it was built only on fancy, or still more when on mistaken 

 principles, being a sufficient inducement to class them together, 

 or to confound them one with another. And this we find to 

 be the case to a large extent even in our own day. It was 

 commonly believed in ancient times that there was a fish, called 

 Naucrates, Remora, or Echeneis, which Avas accustomed to lay 

 hold of a ship, and by means of a magical power or occult 

 quality which it possessed, was able to arrest its progress in 

 the midst of its most rapid course, and fix it stationary even 

 VOL. IV. 3 D 



