8o The Natural History of Selborne 



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 x will have 

 them fresh and fair to-morrrow 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 reasonable 

 distance of Ambresbury [Amesbury], 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 mottled 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 

 pectoral 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 taper- 

 ness, 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 intelligent 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 account, I thought I discerned circum- 

 stances which did not a little invalidate the woman's story of the 

 manner in which she came by her skill. She says of herself " that, 

 labouring under a virulent cancer, she went to some church where 

 there was a vast crowd ; on going into a pew, she was accosted 

 by a strange clergyman, who, after expressing compassion for her 



1 Pennant's engraver. ED. 



