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pound weight, are extremely uncommon ; whence I 

 consider the assertion of their going to the salt water after 

 spawning, as being well founded. It is certain that 

 larlels are never seen but in streams communicating with 

 the sea ; and that about Martinmas they all disappear. 



These fishes dig holes with their si.outs, which are 

 much like those of swine, and burrow in the gravel or 

 sand, at the bottom of those large cavities, over which 

 the stream runs with velocity ; especially under heavy 

 lanks, camskofs, &c. They are in their appetites not 

 unlike swine, preferring carrion and greaves to more 

 sweet food. When men, &c. are drowned, the I arid 

 never fails to repair to the spot, and to make a meal as 

 soon as an opening may present itself j for having no 

 teeth, it is obliged to suck, which it does very greedily. 



The stiff spine on the larlels' backs, no doubt pre- 

 serve them from molestation on the part of predatory 

 fishes, but they are sometimes attacked by leeches, 

 which probably are attracted by their sanguinary appe* 

 tites. 



The larlel spawns about Midsummer, but has not, in 

 general, roe proportionate to its bulk. Nor do I think 

 it is a fast breeder, for I never caught one under two 

 pounds weight, that had any roe in it. They retire gra- 

 dually into the tide's way as the sun gets to the south- 

 ward j and may sometimes be taken in such parts, while 

 not one is to be seen in the summer haunts. 



You may angle for larlels either with a tripping lait 

 on a hook No. 4 or 5, with five or six stout shot at about 

 a foot above your hook, and a double gut, foot length $ 

 or one of weed, arid a cork float j letting your bait, 

 jvhich should be greaves, or lob-wormsj go down with 



