104 



SEA LAMPREY. 



Class IV. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



Not the 



Mdr^na 



Nantes, for supplying him and his army with 

 lampreys, wheresoever they happened to march.* 

 Directions were afterwards given that they 

 should be taken between the mouth of the 

 Seine and Harfleur. 



Lampreys are sometimes found so large as to 

 weigh four or five pounds. The mouth is round 

 and placed rather obliquely below the end of 

 the nose; the edges are jagged, which enable 

 them to adhere the more strongly to the stones, 

 as their custom is, and which they do so firmly 

 as not to be drawn off without some difficulty. 

 We have heard of one weighing three pounds, 

 which was taken out of the Esk, adhering to a 

 stone of twelve pounds weight, suspended at 

 its mouth, from which it was forced with no 

 small pains. There are in the mouth twenty 

 rows of small teeth, disposed in circular order, 

 and placed far within. The color of the body 

 is dusky, irregularly marked with dirty yellow, 

 which gives the fish a disagreeable look. 



We believe that the antients were unac- 

 quainted with this fish; so far is certain, that 

 which Doctor Arbuthnot, and other learned 

 men, render by the word lamprey, is a species 

 unknown in our seas, being the murazna of 



* Rymer, ix. 544. 



