Mazel ^ will have them fresh and fair to-morrow 

 morning. I gave some 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 Ambresbury, I sent a serv- 

 ant 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) 1 took the following description : — 

 The loach, in its general aspect, has a pellucid 

 appearance ; its back is mottled with irregular col- 

 lections of small black dots, not reaching much be- 

 low the /tnea 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 feel- 

 ers, 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 characteris- 

 tic 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, 



* Mr. Peter jVIazel was the engraver of Pennant's plates. 

 72 



