414 The Sea Lamjorey. 



tion kept in view in thus affixing itself; which it does so firmly, 

 indeed, that the utmost strength of a man is often unequal to 

 the task of removing it. The object may be no greater than to 

 relieve itself from further exertion in swimming, and, as in the 

 instance of the true Remora, to be conveyed to a longer dis- 

 tance with the least expenditure of strength. It may also be 

 with the hope of feeding on the flesh of an animal, for which it 

 has mistaken the ship, according to what we know of its pro- 

 pensities under other circumstances ; but it is affirmed by Ron- 

 deletius that it is also with the intention of devouring the pitch 

 with which the ship has heen payed, or coated, and for which it 

 has been supposed to feel an appetite. Such was the opinion, 

 at least, formerly entertained by the fishermen of Marseilles ; 

 and strange as it may appear, a similar opinion has been ex- 

 pressed in England by a witness in an inquiry by a parlia- 

 mentary commission on the salmon fisheries, in the year 1861. 

 It was then shown that under peculiar circumstances, not only 

 salmon, but lampreys also, tasted strongly of tar. The witness 

 said, " We asked the fishermen about it, and they told us that 

 there was a little ripple of tar coming down into the Severn, 

 and that must have been the reason (with the salmon). We 

 were rather angry with the fishermen, and then thought they 

 had put these salmon into a boat where tar had been emptied ; 

 but they said no, the tar in the river must have been the reason. 

 We had two lampreys returned that tasted very badly of tar ; 

 we found out the reason of that. Lampreys have mouths like 

 suckers, and live by suction ; and they will suck tightly to any- 

 thing. The boats had been newly tarred, and these lampreys 

 sucked on to the boat, and from that they were all tar. I am 

 quite certain that the lampreys did not get the tar out of the 

 water, but out of the boat. These tarred fish were confined to 

 one year." 



It is not so certain, however, that the vegetable tar attracts 

 these fish as that coal tar drives them away ; and accordingly 

 it has been noticed that since the sea-going boats have em- 

 ployed the latter no lampreys have laid hold upon them. 



But there is another use to which the mouth is applied, con- 

 cerning which no doubt can exist, and by which the singular 

 situation and armature of the -teeth are to be explained. The 

 whole of the interior arch of the mouth is studded with rows of 

 teeth, each one of which, on a broad base, is furnished with one 

 or two apparently reversed points ; and these teeth which are 

 most remote and concealed are larger than others, and more 

 effectually crowded with these points. For simply biting they 

 are useless; but when the breadth of the mouth is brought 

 into contact with the surface of a fish on which the lamprey has 

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



