388 
(SEA I.AMPREY. 
that instead of Marinis, (living in the sea,) we should read 
Muraenis rivals to the Muraen®; in which case the comparison 
will have become appropriate, and the identity of Pliny’s fish 
with the Burbolt is rendered more probable. 
This sort of Lamprey is often taken in the sea at a considerable 
distance from land, but the largest number obtained in salt 
water are of a size far below what they are accustomed to 
reach. And the peculiar circumstances under which they are 
thus caught have a reference to some of their remarkable 
instinctive habits, and especially offer an explanation of the 
use of the curious formation of the mouth, and of the orga- 
nization which is fitted to the singular manner in which the 
function of breathing is carried on. The structure of the 
mouth we shall by and by describe; but for the present we 
observe that when the mouth is open it forms an expanded 
disk, round the deeper portion of which there is a characteristic 
arrangement of rasping teeth, which teeth the fish has the 
power of bringing into contact with any surface on which it 
chooses to lay hold. By an exhausting action, through which 
the air and water are removed, a vacuum is produced, and 
thus the fish becomes fixed without any further action of 
muscular effort. The bottom of a ship or boat is frequently 
the object to which it attaches itself; and a fisherman has 
informed me that he has seen it advance and overtake a boat 
that was sailing at good speed, in order to fix itself on the 
rudder. 
It becomes then a question what is the intention it has in 
thus affixing itself to an inanimate substance, Avhich it does 
so firmly that all the strength a man can exert is often unequal 
to the task of removing it. The intention may be no more 
than to relieve itself from further exertion in swimming, but 
it also may be with the hope of feeding on the flesh of an 
animal for which it has mistahen the ship, according to what 
we know of its propensity under other circumstances, of which 
we shall produce some individual instances; but it is affirmed 
by Ilondeletius that it is also with the intention of feeding 
on the pitch with which the ship has been jmyed or coated 
and for which it has been supposed to feel an appetite. 
Such at least was the opinion formerly entertained by the 
fishermen of Marseilles, and, strange as it may appear, a 
