74 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
of three or four pounds.^ They are best in season m 
the spring, at which time they ascend the river^ from 
the sea^ being then of a most delicious taste and 
much esteemed by epicures ; they are however, if 
eaten to excess very unwholesome, and the death 
of Henry I. has been ascribed to partaking of them 
too freely. These and lamperns, are considered pe- 
culiarly good when potted, and Worcester potted 
lampreys and lamperns are known all over the 
world. The fresh-water lamprey, or lampern, P. 
fluviatilis, is more abundant, but much smaller and 
cheaper than the preceding ; they resemble eels in 
their form and slimness, their colour is blackish 
upon the back, and blue upon their bellies, and 
upon each side of the throat they have seven parallel 
holes, which serve them in the place of gills. In the 
spring of the year these fish are frequently seen 
sticking by their mouth to stones in shallow water. 
They enter the Severn from the sea in the beginning 
of the year, spawn in March or April, and about 
midsummer again return to the ocean. The pride, or 
least lampern, Ammocoetes branchialis, is a curious 
little fish about the size of a goose quill. It is 
frequent in many of our rivulets especially about 
Bromsgrove, and is commonly denominated the nine 
holes, though in reality, like the lamprey, it has no 
more than seven on each side the neck. Dr. Plot, 
in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, calls them 
the pride of the Isis." 
The salmon, Salmo salar, is too well known to need 
1 It has been noticed as high up the river as Apley Park, Salop. 
