386 
SEA l.AMPREY. 
in the middle of tlie ocean. W^e have already given an 
account of some of the supposed actions of the now-recognised 
Eemora, which is a very different fish from that of which 
we now speak; but ordinary observation had shewn that the 
Lamprey also was in the habit of laying hold of a ship so 
firmly as not to be easily separated from it; and, without 
attending to the difference in the mode of acting, or considering 
that different fishes might possess the same power, the ancients 
advanced to the conclusion that where the effect was the 
same the fishes themselves could not be different. Nor does 
it appear that this mistake has been altogether corrected, nor 
the superstition or hallucination been obliterated, at a very 
modern date; for in Dodsley’s “Annual Register” for 1778, 
is an account of the Paklara, which may be either the 
Remora or Lamprey, from an abstract of the Travels of the 
Abbe Fortis, who, after referring to the ancient stories of 
Anthony and Caligula, informs the reader of what happened 
within his own knowledge. He says that when he was at 
sea the steersman ordered the sailors to come abaft and kill 
a fish which he called Paklara; and in reply to the Abbe’s 
inquiry why he did so, he was informed that it was the habit 
of this fish to lay hold of the rudder with its teeth, and by so 
doing it retarded the progress of the ship so sensibly that 
the steersman was aware of it in a moment, even without 
seeing the fish itself. This man spoke of the Paklara as a 
common fish, which in shape resembled a Conger, but in 
length did not exceed a foot and a half. 
The fact, however, of the knowledge of the Lamprey by 
the ancients, notwithstanding the uncertainty arising from 
confounding it with others, appears without doubt from the 
description which Oppian gives, although under the name of 
Echeneis he confounds the Remora with the Lamprey, to 
which latter only his particulars can be applied. 
“Slender his shape, hia length a cubit ends; 
No beauteous spot the gloomy race commends; 
An Eol-liko clinging kind of dusky looks; 
His j'a-ws display tenacious rows of hooka; 
But in strange power the puny fish excels, 
Beyond the boasted art of magic spells.” 
When, however, the Lamprey had come under the notice 
of another class of observers in its yearly migration into fresh 
