64 LAMPREY, HAG, LANCELOT. 



with two longitudinal rows of small teeth. By means of this 

 sucker, the Lamprey can attach itself to the bodies of the largest 



FIG. 286. LAMPREY. 



fishes ; and is able speedily to pierce through their integuments, 

 and to prey upon their substance. The largest species, which 

 attain the length of two or three feet, are marine ; the former, 

 which chiefly inhabit rivers, are sometimes called Lamperns. 

 The members of the genus Myxine, or Hag, and its allies, have 

 not even a cartilaginous ring around the mouth, its borders being 

 entirely membranous, and furnished with only one tooth. The 

 mouth is surrounded by eight cirrhi, or tendril-like feelers ; 

 which remind us of the arms of the Cuttle-fish in miniature. 

 This fish is destitute of eyes ; and does not seem, indeed, to 

 have any other special organ of sensation than these cirrhi. The 

 best known species is known to British fishermen under the name 

 of the Hag ; it is found in the interior of other fishes, whose 

 bodies it has entered for the purpose of devouring them ; and 

 it seems to attack in preference those which have been hooked, 

 and which, consequently, are not able to defend themselves. As 

 many as six Hags have been found in the skin of a single Had- 

 dock, on the Norway coast (where this species is more abun- 

 dant than our own), the flesh of which they had almost entirely 

 consumed. It is usually from twelve to fifteen inches in length, 

 and of the thickness of the little finger ; and its whole tissues 

 are so soft, that it would not have been supposed capable of 

 inflicting any serious injury. The quantity of mucus which it 

 can secrete from its surface is enormous ; it has been asserted, 

 that if a Hag be placed in a pitcher of sea- water, it will speedily 

 convert this into a semi-transparent jelly ; and that, if placed 

 in a fresh quantity of water, it will change this in the same 

 manner. The most imperfectly formed of all Fish is, probably, 

 the Amphioxus, or Lancelot ; which has, by many Natu- 



