THE LAMPREY. 14? 



of this species are in inverse ratio with those of some other 

 kinds of fish, and consequently less commonly seen than the 

 males, eggs are also to be found. 



" I have frequently seen eels with so-called young ones 

 in the cavity of the abdomen, and at times near to the 

 vent itself; but on close inspection, they have all proved 

 to be intestinal worms (Echinorhyncus tereticollis, Rud.), 

 by which this fish is much troubled." 



From personal experience, I can say nothing as to the 

 period when the eel spawns. One fisherman in my neigh- 

 bourhood imagined it to be about the dog-days, which nearly 

 agrees with Ekstrom's supposition ; but in general these men 

 rofessed total ignorance of the subject. 



The eel attained to a considerable size with us : in the 

 Wenern, certainly to ten or eleven pounds. My own fisher- 

 man assured me, that his father captured an individual 

 weighing fourteen pounds ; and mentioned, moreover, that 

 to his knowledge an eel, taken in a lake in Dalsland, was 

 some years since brought into the town of Wenersborg for 

 sale, that weighed no less than eighteen pounds. 



The River Lamprey (Nejnoga, Sw. ; implying nine eyes ; 

 Petromyzon fluviatilis, Linn.) was common in my vicinity; 

 as also, I believe, in the more middle and northern parts 

 of Scandinavia. 



The Sea Lamprey (Hafs-Nejnoga, Sw. ; P. marinus, Linn.) 

 was found occasionally in the Gotha, not exactly in my 

 vicinity, however, but below the cataracts of Lilla Edet, 

 situated at about twenty miles to the southward of Ron- 

 num, and forty from the sea. 



Swedish naturalists also include Planer's Lamprey (P. 

 *laneri, Bloch) in the Scandinavian Fauna, and say it is 



L 2 



