158 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
placed rather obliquely below the end of the nose. It mere 
resembles the mouth of a leech than an eel ; and the animal 
has a hole on the top of the head, through which it spouts 
water, as in the cetaceous kind. There are seven holes on 
each side for respiration ; and the fins are formed rather by 
a lengthening out of the skin, than any set of bones or 
spines for that purpose. As the mouth is formed resem- 
bling that of a leech, so it has a properly, resembling that 
animal, of sticking close to, and sucking any body it is 
applied to. It is extraordinary the power they have of 
adhering to stones; which they do so firmly, as not to be 
drawn off without some difficulty. We are told of one 
that weighed but three pounds, and yet it stuck so firmly 
to a stone of twelve pounds, that it remained suspended at 
its mouth ; from which it was separated with no small dif- 
ficulty. As to the intestines of the lamprey, it seems to 
have but one great bowel, running from the mouth to the 
vent, narrow at both ends, and wide in the middle. 
So simple a conformation seems to imply an equal sim- 
plicity of appetite. In fact, the lamprey’s food is either 
slime and water, or such small water-insects as are scarcely 
perceivable. Perhaps its appetite may be more active at 
sea, of which it is properly a native; but when it comes 
up into our rivers, it is hardly perceived to devour any 
thing. 
Its usual time of leaving the sea, which it is annually 
seen to do in order to spawn, is about the beginning of 
spring; and after a stay of a few months it returns a^ain 
to the sea. Their preparation for spawning is peculiar; their 
manner is, to make holes in the gravelly bottoms of rivers* 
and on this occasion their sucking power is particularly 
serviceable ; for if they meet with a stone of a considerable 
size, they will remove it, and throw it out. Their youim 
are produced from eggs in the manner of fiat fish ; the fe” 
male remains near the place where they are excluded, and 
continues with them till they come forth. She is sometimes 
seen with her whole family playing about her; and after 
some time she conducts them in triumph back to the ocean. 
There is a small species of the lamprey, which is called 
the Lampern, and about Oxford the Pride of the Isis. It 
is frequently potted by itself, and sometimes along with the 
larger species. 
The Sturgeon in its general form resembles a fresh- 
water pike. The nose is long ; the mouth is situated be- 
neath, being small, and without jaw-bones or teeth But, 
