SEA LAMPREY. 
891 
of -wickerwork, wliick. are also employed; because in the latter 
they bruise themselves in their struggles to get free. 
In remote times of our history this fish was held as of 
great value, and there are instances in proof that it was once 
deemed a favourite dish at the table of kings. The death 
of Henry the First was caused by his having indulged too 
freely in a dish of potted Lampreys; and a single one of these 
fish was thought a not unfitting present to be sent by King 
John to the Earl of Chester; who acknowledged the honour 
by the present in return of a good palfrey. It was an old 
custom for the corporation of the city of Gloucester to present 
to the reigning sovereign a pie of Lampreys yearly; but it 
appears that this custom has ceased to exist; an end probably 
having been put to it on the occasion of the passing of the 
Reform Bill. In the last century also a pie of Lampreys was 
sent by the corporation of the same city to the Prince of 
W ales. 
As this species of Lamprey enters rivers for the purpose of 
spawning, in the spring, this is the season of its highest per- 
fection; but immediately after the shedding of the roe so great 
a change takes place, that they are not only weakened and 
emaciated, but it has been believed that death is commonly 
the result. But that this last supposition at least is not correct, 
appears from the fact, that while in May, twelve months 
perhaps from their birth, they are often found not to exceed 
six or eight inches in length, and when a little larger at that 
season are clearly pregnant with enlarged sjjawn, examples are 
not uncommon which measure thirty inches in length; and 
which therefore we may conclude to have experienced the 
growths of several seasons, and consequently to have passed 
through more than one or two of those in which their spawn 
has been deposited. 
The method of proceeding by which a procreant bed is 
prepared for the reception of this treasure, affords an insight 
into another use to which the sucking faculty of the mouth 
can be applied. Both sexes unite in preparing the ground at 
the bottom of the river, by excavating a trench; and as in 
doing this it shall happen that stones of considerable size may 
lie in the way, the mouth is employed in the labour of grasping 
and removing them, so that the grains of roe may be covered 
