OF SELBORNE 47 



A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but 

 could find no such fish as the gasterosteus pungitius : he 

 found the gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty. This morning, 

 in a basket, I packed a little earthen pot fuU of wet moss, 

 and in it some sticklebacks, male and female ; the females 

 big with spawn : some lamperns ; some bulls heads ; but 

 I could procure no minnows. This basket will be in 

 Fleet-street by eight this evening ; so I hope Mazel wiU 

 have them fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I gave 

 some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the en- 

 graver should be attentive. 



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

 reasonable distance of Ambresburv, 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. From these fishes (which 

 measured from two to four inches in length) I took the 

 following description : " The loach, in its general aspect, 

 has a pellucid appearance : its back is mottled with irregular 

 collections of small black dots, not reaching much below 

 the linea lateralis, 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 taperness, 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 

 wonderful 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. 



