OF SELBOENE. 67 



directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver 

 should be attentive. 



Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a 

 reasonable distance of Ambreslmry, I sent a servant over to 

 that town, and procured several living specimens of loaches, 

 which he brought safe and brisk in a glass decanter. They 

 were taken in the gullies that were cut for watering the 

 meadows. 1 From these fishes (whieh measured from two 

 to four inches in length) I took the following description : 

 " The loach, in its general aspect, has a pellucid appear- 

 ance ; its back is mottled with irregular collections of small 

 black dots, not reaching much below the linea latemlis, as 

 are the back and tail fins ; a black line runs from each eye 

 down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the upper 

 jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with six 

 feelers, three on each side ; its pectoral fins are large, its 

 ventral much smaller; the fin behind its anus small; its 

 dorsal fin large, containing eight spines ; its tail, where it 

 joins to the tail fin, remarkably broad, without any taper- 

 ness, so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the tail fin is 

 broad, and square at the end. From the breadth and 

 muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an active 

 nimble fish." 



In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did 

 not forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonder- 

 ful method of curing cancers by means of toads. Several 

 intelligent persons, both gentry and clergy, do, I find, give 

 a great deal of credit to what was asserted in the papers ; 

 and I myself dined with a clergyman who seemed to be 

 persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; but, when 

 I came to attend to his account, I thought I discerned 

 circumstances which did not a little invalidate the woman's 

 story of the manner in which she came by her skill. She 

 says of herself, " that labouring under a virulent cancer, 



1 Mr. Bennett states that Ambresbury had become notorious for its 

 loaches, on account of sportsmen there frequently, in frolic, swallowing 

 one of them alive in a glass of white wine ; but the fish is by no means 

 a local one. It occurs generally throughout the country in brooks and 

 rivulets, lurking under stones. ED. 



