CHAPTER SIX SALMON FISHING 



proceedings of two lampreys in a small ditch of clear run- 

 ning water near my house.* They were about six inches in 

 length, and as large round as a pencil. The two little crea- 

 tures were most busily and anxiously employed in making 

 little triangular heaps of stones, using for the purpose ir- 

 regularly shaped bits of gravel about the size of a large pea. 

 When they wished to move a larger stone, they helped each 

 other in endeavouring to roll it into the desired situation: 

 occasionally they both left off their labours and appeared 

 to rest for a short time, and then to return to the work with 

 fresh vigour. The object of their building I am not suffici- 

 ently learnedinthe natural historyof thelamprey to divine; 

 but I conclude that their work had somethino- to do with 

 the placing of their spawn. I had, however, a good opport- 

 unity of watching them, as the water was quite clear and 

 shallow, and they were so intent upon what they were at, 

 that they took no notice whatever of me. I had intended to 

 examine the little heaps of stones which they had made, 

 but going from home the next day put it out of my recol- 

 lection, and I lost the opportunity. It seems, however, so 

 singular a manoeuvre on the part of fish to build up regular 

 little pyramids of gravel, bringing some of the stones from 

 thedistance of two feet against the current and rolling them 

 to the place with evident difficulty, that the lampreys must 

 have some good reason which induces them to take this 

 trouble. It is a great pity that the habits offish and animals 

 living in water are so difficult to observe with any degree of 

 exactness. 



*These fish were not lampreys (Petromyzon maiinus), which commonly measure two 

 to three feet in length, but lamperns (P.fluviatilis). Mr Harvey Brown does not men- 

 tion this widely distributed species in his Fauna oflhe Moray Basin (1895). — Ed. 



