THE SHADS, THE EELS, AND THE LAMPREYS 303 



The seven gill-openings are ranged in a line behind the 

 eye, and between the eyes is the single nasal aperture. 



The lampern is not known to descend to the sea. Its 

 geographical range, however, is rather wider than that of the 

 lamprey, for it is abundant in Russia and Japan, and extends 

 as far north in America as Alaska. 



Couch says that, although lampreys may be found in the 

 rivers during every month of the year, individuals have been 

 taken sometimes in the open sea, and some ichthyologists 

 have maintained that the metamorphosis from the larval to the 

 adult form takes place in the sea. Little, however, seems to 

 be known about the migration of these fish. They spawn in 

 swift-flowing shallows in March and April, at which season 

 their skin shines with a metallic lustre. 



Lamperns have never been so highly esteemed for the 

 table as lampreys, albeit Buckland declared that " there is no 

 finer dish," and that when he was fishery inspector the people 

 of Worcester used often to complain to him that they could 

 not get lamperns to stew, because, although multitudes were 

 caught in the Severn, they were all packed off wholesale to 

 be used as bait for cod by the North Sea fishermen. In his 

 Salmon-Fishery Report for 1878 he describes large quantities 

 as being taken in the Trent as many as 3,000 at Newark 

 in one night all of which were sent alive in wicker baskets to 

 Great Grimsby and other eastern ports for bait. The fishing 

 begins in August and continues till March, and it has been 

 stated before a Royal Commission that a single fisherman has 

 taken as many as 120,000 in a season, and that another 

 fisherman received .400 for his catch in a like period. In 

 the Thames, which used to furnish an enormous number of 

 lamperns, the fishing was reported about 1872 to have dwindled 

 to insignificance. 



The lampern has not been detected in preying upon the 

 bodies of living fish after the manner of the lamprey, and 

 probably contents itself with smaller animal organisms. 



