170 The Sea Lamprey. 



Sussex coast ; and Buckland (Brit. Fish) describes the purse 

 or egg-sac of an Eagle Ray, obtained by the Margate fishermen. 

 We are not aware of records of this fish from the Essex coast. 

 A dead one was got on Lowestoft beach, June, 1867. 



The Lamprey Family (Petromyzontidce). Of these we deal 

 with two kinds the sea and the river forms. Regarding Dover, 

 " We have no Lampreys, or their allies," so says Webb. 

 Whether this applies to the Kent seaboard generally we are 

 unable to answer, but at least Boys, 1792, notes the Lesser 

 Lainprey in Sandwich area, and most certainly they ascend the 

 Medway. 



(1) The SEA LAMPREY (Petromyzon marinus) seems more 

 prevalent in the Essex waters. Dr. Laver* mentions two in 

 the Colne to his knowledge. One, a fine specimen, was 

 captured near Hythe, Colne river, close to Colchester. They 

 are often taken at Fullbridge, Maldon, especially in spring. 

 They go far up the Thames, Yarrell noting one taken in 

 June, 1834, and another in June, 1835, near Sunbury Weir. 



In early spring, as they leave the sea and ascend the river 

 to breed, they are now and again met with in the Thames 

 mouth by the trawlers and stow-boat fishers, but the period of 

 their descent has not been observed. In 1878 a specimen 

 18 inches long adhered to an individual when bathing at 

 Margate, the species being identified by Dr. Day. A white- 

 baiter (Ben Emery) caught one over 2 feet long in his stow-net 

 in April, 1899, below Southend Pier. He remarked that they 

 had been pretty numerous for some weeks before then, though, 

 unfortunately for our purposes, all were returned to the water, 

 for the fishermen eschew them as food and do not use them as 

 bait. 



Albert Bundock, who formerly fished much up river towards 

 Gravesend, states that they are very numerous beyond the 

 Lower Hope later in the season, and that they, as well as 



* Fishes of Essex, 1898, and Essex Nat. V. (1891). 



