NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 47 



sit down, to return you an answer to many queries, which I 

 wanted to resolve in the best manner that I am able. 



A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could 

 find no such fish as the Gasterosteus pungitius l ; he found the 

 Gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty. This morning, in a basket, 

 I packed a little earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some 

 sticklebacks, male and female ; the females big with spawn : 

 some lamperns; some bull's heads; but I could procure no 

 minnows. This basket will be in Fleet Street by eight this 

 evening ; so I hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to- 

 morrow morning. 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 within a reason- 

 able distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that 

 town, and procured several living specimens of loaches, which 

 he brought, safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were 

 taken in the gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. 

 From these fishes (which measured from two to four inches 

 in length) I took the following description : " The loach, in 

 its general aspect, has a pellucid appearance ; its back is mot- 

 tled with irregular collections of small black dots, not reaching 

 much below the linea lateralis, as are the back and tail fins ; 

 a black line runs from each eye down to the nose ; its belly is 

 of a silvery white; the upper jaw projects beyond the lower, 

 and is surrounded with six feelers, three on each side ; its pec- 

 toral fins are large, its ventral much smaller ; the fin behind 

 its anus small ; its dorsal-fin large, containing eight spines ; its 

 tail, where it joins to the tail-fin, remarkably broad, without 

 any taperness, so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the 

 tail-fin is broad, and square at the end. From the breadth 

 and muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an active 

 nimble fish." 



In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did 

 not forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful 

 method of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelli- 

 gent persons, both gentry and clergy, do I find give a great 

 deal of credit to what is asserted in the papers, and I myself 

 dined with a clergyman who seemed to be persuaded that what 

 is related is matter of fact ; but, when I came to attend to his 



