Gossip about Fish. 105 



great spear-shaped fins. If awakened from its slumbers, its 

 usual mode of escape is along the surface of tlie water with 

 great swiftness, so that, in a case which Mr. Couch mentions, 

 a rowing boat could not overtake it. Mr. Couch gives a beau- 

 tiful figure of it, and informs us that when seen shining in the 

 water, it is found to merit its sunny name. Our readers will 

 remember its portrait, drawn in a former number, to illustrate 

 its capacities for playing the part of host to some of Dr. 

 Cobbold's vermicular pets.* 



Among the queerest of queer fishes are the lampreys. 

 The}?" are of worm-like form, with soft bones, and mouths 

 rather vertical than horizontal, which can be expanded, and act 

 as sucking disks. The sea-lamprey is often found tightly 

 adhering by its sucker mouth to a ship, and it has been sup- 

 posed by some that it mistakes the sides of the vessel for 

 something good to eat; while others consider that, with- 

 out studying Bishop Berkeley, it has a high opinion of the 

 virtues of tar, and adheres to the ship for the sake of that 

 substance. The sea-lamprey is described by Mr. Couch as 

 dining off its fellow-creatures after a fashion more skilful than 

 kind. " The whole of the interior arch of the mouth is studded 

 with regular rows of teeth, each one of which, on a broad 

 base, is furnished with one or two apparently reversed points ; 

 and the teeth which are the most distant and concealed are 

 larger than the others, and more effectually crowded with these 

 points. For simply biting, as in other fishes, they are useless; 

 but when the breadth of the open mouth is brought into con- 

 tact with the surface of a fish on which the lamprey has laid 

 hold, by producing a vacuum, these roughly-pointed teeth are 

 brought forward in a manner to be able to act on it by a circular 

 motion, and a limited space on the skin of the captive prey is 

 thus rasped into a pulp and swallowed, so that a hole is made 

 which may, perhaps, penetrate to the bones/' The victims of 

 this singular " diner out " cannot succeed in throwing off their 

 tormentor ; but they seem to get well of their wounds, and are 

 ready, like the Abyssinian cows, when one slice has been taken 

 away, for their devourers to come again. A more amiable trait 

 in the lamprey character is the aptitude for matrimonial felicity 

 at the spawning season. Both sexes then combine to excavate 

 a trench at the bottom of a river, in which their eggs are to be 

 deposited, and when a stone of considerable size is in the way, 

 the sucker-mouth seizes it, and it is thrust on one side. Stones 

 of even ten or twelve pounds weight are said to be turned over 

 by the zealous pair, who no doubt experience satisfaction in 

 the performance of their task. The lamprey figures in heraldry, 

 and is occasionally met with as a surname, though what resem- 



* Yol. ii. p. 82. 



