THE LAMPREY. 79 



the head, It is entirely void of bone and is an excellent 

 bait for night-lines, particularly for eels. There is a 

 smaller kind which inhabits many of our streams near 

 their source, which are not more than six or seven inches 

 long, and about as thick as a dew-worm, of a pale brown 

 or sandy colour ; it will also do to bait night lines 

 when cut in pieces about an inch long, but it is not to be 

 compared to the larger sort. There is also another kind, 

 which is an inhabitant of the sea, though it comes into 

 fresh water to deposit its spawn ; it is called " the lam- 

 prey eel." The skin is of a blackish colour and full of 

 paleish angular spots. I have seen in the river Neath lamprey 

 eels which have measured three feet in length ; but they 

 are of no service to the angler ; for without they are a fish 

 whereon he can exercise his patience and abilities to cap- 

 ture, he considers them worthless ; and he may be classed 

 amongst the most persevering enemies of the finny race, 

 which are too numerous to mention ; but I shall here 

 enumerate a few, as Pope and other writers have given 

 them : 



" A thousand foes the finny people chase, 



Nor are they safe from their own kindred race : 

 The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain, 

 With ra\'nous waste devours his fellow train ; 

 Yet howso'er with raging famine pined, 

 The tench he spares, a salutary kind; 

 Hence, too, the perch, a like voracious brood, 

 Forbears to make this gen'rous race his food, 

 Though on the common drove no hound he finds, 

 But spreads unmeasured waste o'er all the kinds : 

 Nor less the greedy trout and glutless eel, 

 Incessant woes and dire destruction deal : 

 The lurking water rat in caverns preys, 

 And in tho weeds the wily otter slays ; 



