LAMPADEPHORO1 LANARKSHIRE. 



359 



LAMPADEPHOROI (Gr. x*,**-**, a torch, and 

 $iaa, to carry). In the torch-rnces of the ancient 

 (Jreeks, the successful competitor was called ^0.^0.- 

 Injm^o;, and the race itself, t.x/t.-ra.l^^it. These races 

 took place in Athens, at the t/'ulcanalia, Promet/iea, 

 Panathenaea, and some other festivals. The runners 

 were three youths. It was decided by lot who should 

 begin. He commenced his race, and, if his torch 

 was extinguished before he reached the goal, he gave 

 it to the second, and this one, in a similar case, to 

 the third. He who carried the torch burning to the 

 goal, was the victor (Xxu^dSmp^at) . If a youth ran 

 too slow, in order to avoid extinguishing his torch, 

 the spectators drove him on by beating him with the 

 open hand. The poets often allude to the delivery 

 of the torch from one to the other. 



LAMPBLACK. See Carbon. 



LAMPREY (petromyzon). This fish has a long 

 and slender body, resembling that of the eel. The 

 skin has no scales, but is covered with a glutinous 

 mucus. The sea-lamprey, which is sometimes the 

 largest species, grows to a very large size, having 

 been seen of five or six pounds weight. Its colour 

 is dusky, irregularly marked with dirty yellow. In 

 the mouth are placed twenty rows of small teeth, dis- 

 posed in circular order, and placed far back near the 

 throat, four, five, and six in each row. The branchiae 

 are situated within seven apertures that exist on 

 each side of the neck. This fish, as its name indi- 

 cates, possesses the power of sucking, and adher- 

 ing to stones. The mouth is of a round form, 

 resembling that of a leech, and. like that animal, it 

 can adhere to any substance with great firmness. 

 The sea-lamprey, although properly an inhabitant of 

 salt water, like the salmon and other marine fish, is 

 found at certain seasons of the year in rivers. The 

 lamprey was at one time considered as a great deli- 

 cacy by the English; and a surfeit on them caused 

 the death of Henry I. In the reign of Henry IV., so 

 highly were they esteemed, that protections were 

 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. The lam- 

 prey is still considered as a delicacy at certain sea- 

 sons of the year, but has lost much of its value as an 

 article of food. During cold weather, this fish 

 conceals itself in the crevices of rocks ; and it is a 

 usual expedient with anglers to form pits extending 

 to the water side in the vicinity of its haunts; into 

 these a little blood is thrown, to induce the lamprey 

 to come forth, when it is readily taken. The lam- 

 prey, so celebrated among the epicures of ancient 

 Rome, appears to have been a fish of another genus 

 the muraena, or murcnophis. This fish, with the 

 bass (lupus), and a species of mullet (myxo\ formed 

 the pride of Roman feasts the tripatinum. (See 

 Pliny, lib. 35, cap. 12.) These lampreys were reared 

 with the greatest care, and at an enormous expense, 

 in artificial fish-ponds. Pliny gives some curious 

 details on this head; he says, Lucullus formed a fish- 

 pond, near Naples, of such size, that the fish it con- 

 tained, after his death, sold for 4,000,000 of sester- 

 ces (170,000 dollars); but Hirrius was the first to 

 build a pond for lampreys alone. On one occasion, 

 when Caesar gave an entertainment to the people, 

 Hirrius furnished him with 6000 of these fish. They 

 also appear to have been kept as pets; thus the 

 celebrated orator Hortensius wept bitterly at the 

 death of a lamprey, and Antonia, the wife of Drusus, 

 ornamented one with jewels. The bite of the 

 muraena was deemed so poisonous by the fishermen, 

 that they adopted great caution to prevent its effects, 

 seizing the animal by the head with a forceps, and 

 rubbing its snout against some hard substance to 



destroy its teeth, and beat it on the tail, where (as 

 is now supposed with regard to eels), it was thought 

 that the lite resided. There are several other species 

 of lampreys and muraenas, some of which inhabit the 

 American coasts and rivers, for information on w hich 

 we refer to doctor Mitchell's papers on the Fishes of 

 New York (New York Phil. Trans.) and Mr 

 Lesueur's on American Muraenas (Jour. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci.) 



LANARK, (derived by some from Lan-eerig, the 

 bank of the river, by others from the British Llan- 

 erch, a green or glade;) a royal burgh of Scotland, 

 the capital of Lanarkshire, situated on an elevated 

 piece of ground near the banks of the Clyde, thirty- 

 one miles west from Edinburgh, and twenty-five 

 south-east from Glasgow. It is supposed to be the 

 Colania of Ptolemy, and is known to have been of 

 considerable note at a very early period, Kenneth 

 II. having held a parliament here in 978. In 1244 

 the town was destroyed by fire, and in 1297, the 

 heroic Wallace first raised the standard of liberty 

 here, slew the English governor, and made himself 

 master of the place. It was erected into a royal 

 burgh by Alexander I., and its charters were finally 

 confirmed by Charles I. in 1632. The chief employ- 

 ment of the inhabitants is weaving for the Glasgow 

 manufacturers. In the neighbourhood, higher up 

 the Clyde, stand the cotton-mills and village of New 

 Lanark, founded by David Dale in 1785, and cele- 

 brated as the earliest subject of Mr Owen's philan- 

 thropic exertions. Population in 1841 ; of the town 

 of Lanark, 4831 ; of New Lanark, 1642 ; of the sur- 

 rounding parish, 1206; total, 7,679. 



LANARKSHIRE; a large and important county 

 of Scotland, bounded on the east by the shires of 

 Edinburgh and Peebles, on the west by those of Ayr 

 and Renfrew, on the north by those of Dumbarton, 

 Stirling, and Linlithgow, and on the south by the 

 county of Dumfries. Its greatest length from 

 Queensberry-hill on the south, to near the eastern 

 extremity of the burgh of Renfrew on the north- 

 west, is fifty-two miles; and its greatest breadth, 

 nearly in a line at right angles to its length, from 

 the confines of Peebles-shire on the east at Garvald- 

 foot, to the source of the Avon, on the frontiers of 

 Ayrshire on the west, is thirty-three miles. It contains 

 an area of 926 square miles, or 471,278 Scots statute 

 acres. Towards the south, the county is hilly and 

 mountainous. A ridge of lofty mountains, called 

 the Lowthers, stretches through the country from 

 near the Clyde to the south-western boundary, where 

 part of the chain separates Lanarkshire from the 

 county of Dumfries. From the southern extremity 

 of Lanarkshire another ridge runs northward for 

 many miles betwixt and Peebles-shire. A third 

 chain, farther to the north, crosses the county to- 

 wards the west, about twenty miles from the southern 

 limit. The eastern part of this chain is called the 

 hills of Tinto, and the western part, separated from 

 the eastern by the vale of Douglas, the Haughshaw 

 hills. The general surface of this hilly district is 

 about 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Many 

 of the mountains are of a great height ; Lowther 

 Hill is 2,450 feet above the same level; Tinto 2,236 

 feet; Coulter-fell about the same height; and Cairn- 

 table, on the borders of Ayrshire, measures 1,650 

 feet. To the northward of the hills of Tinto, Lan- 

 arkshire is, in general, a fine champaign and varie- 

 gated country, declining to the north-west, and in 

 many situations remarkable for its picturesque beauty 

 and the grandeur of its scenes. Many beautiful vales 

 stretch alongst the numerous rivers. The chief of 

 these is the vale of Clyde, extending from about two 

 miles above Lanark, to within three or four miles ot 

 Glasgow, every where remarkable for its natural 



