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mufct have lungs, though I do not know of any anatomist that 

 has described tliem. 



The adhesive quality in the lamprey may be, in some measure, 

 increased by that sbmy substance with which its body is all over 

 smeared ; a substance that serves at once to keep it warm in its 

 cold element, and also to keep its skin soft and pliant. This 

 mucus is separated by two long lymphatic canals, that extend on 

 each side from the head to the tail, and that furnish it in great 

 abundance. As to its intestines, it seems to have but one great 

 bowel, running from the mouth to the vent, narrow at both ends, 

 and wide in the middle. 



So simple a conformation seems to imply an equal simplicity 

 of appetite. In fact, the lamprey's food is either slime and 

 water, or such small water-insects as are scarcely perceivable. 

 Perhaps its appetite may be more active at sea, of which it is 

 properly a native ; but when it comes up into our rivers, it is 

 hardly perceived to devour any thing. 



Its usual time of leaving the sea, which it is annually seen to 

 do in order to spawn, is about the beginning of spring ; and after 

 a stay of a few months it returns again to the sea. Their pre- 

 paration for spawniing is peculiar ; their manner is to make holes 

 in the gravelly bottom of rivers ; and on this occasion their suck- 

 ing power is particularly sernceable ; for if they meet with a 

 stone of a considerable size they will remove it, and throw it 

 out. Their young are produced from eggs in the manner of flat 

 fish ; the female remains near the place where they are excluded, 

 and continues with them till they come forth. She is sometimes 

 seen with her whole family playing about her ; and after some 

 time she conducts them in triumph back to the ocean. 



But some have not sufficient strength to return ; and these 

 continue in the fresh water till they die. Indeed the life of this 

 fish, according to Rondeletius, who has given its history, is but 

 f very short continuance ; and a single brood is the extent of 

 the female's fertility. As soon as she has returned after cast- 

 ing her eggs, she seems exhausted and flabby. She becomes 

 old before her time ; and two years is generally the limit of her 

 existence. 



However this may be, they are very indifTerent eating after 

 they have cast their eggs, and particularly at the approach of hot 

 weather. The best season for them is the months of March, 



