THE LAMPREY. 



343 



considerable size, being often captured measuring three or four feet in length, and is 

 said sometimes to attain a length of seven feet. Several species are said to inhabit the 

 same waters ; but when the remarkable diversity of form and color which often reigns 

 among the fishes is considered, it is highly probable that the supposed species maybe 

 nothing more than well-marked varieties. The flesh of the Bony Pike is said to be good. 



THE well-known LAMPREY and its kin are remarkable for the wonderful resemblance 

 which their mouths bear to that of a leech. 



They are all long-bodied snake-like fish, and possess a singular apparatus of adhesion, 

 which acts on the same principle as the disc of the sucking-fish, or the ventral fins of 

 the goby, though it is set on a different part of the body. If all had their rights, indeed, 

 the title of sucking-fish ought more correctly to be applied to the Lamprey than to the 

 creature which is at present dignified by that appellation ; as the one really applies its 



BONY PlKE.-Lepldosteus osseus. 



mouth to any object to which it desires to adhere and forms a vacuum by suction, 

 whereas the sucking-fish attains the same object by pressing the edges of the disc 

 against the moving object to which it wishes to attach itself, and forms the needful 

 vacuum by the movement of the bony laminae. 



Several fishes are popularly known by the name of Lamprey, but the only one to 

 which the title ought properly to be given is the larger of the two species in the engraving. 



The Lamprey is a sea-going fish, passing most of its time in the ocean, but ascend- 

 ing the rivers for the purpose of spawning. April and May are the months in which 

 this fish is usually seen to enter the rivers of England, but in more northern countries 

 the time is postponed according to the climate. In Scotland, for example, the usual 

 month for spawning is June, and, as a general rule, the latter end of spring and the 

 spawning of the Lamprey are synchronous. 



The flesh of the Lamprey is peculiarly excellent, though practically unknown to the 

 great bulk of our population, and the juvenile student in history is always familiar with 

 the fatal predilection of British royalty for this fish. Though it spends so much of its 

 time in the sea, it is seldom captured except during its visit to the rivers, and even 



