The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-03-18
THIS FISH rs A FIEND
THE MURDsROuS LAKE LAMPREY OF
CENTRAL NEW YORK.

lhlfBty anu refoctOus AhiHaA ="
the worid-iiow 1t Attacks. Mains
and Kills Its Victims.
What Is tho most bloo1thirsty and fero-
cious animal In the worldY Not the lion,
nor the tiger, nor any relatives which arc
theirs. 1t IL the lake lamprey of central
New York.. This animal Is not an eel;
most naturalists recently have denied him
admission even into the class Of fishes.
Tho most they will grant Is that no Is o
flshlike animal. The lamprey is the low
est form of animal life in which the ami
NAL has backbone or, as the naturalists
would soy, IL vertebrate, which is found
In this region. The adult life of lake
lainprcy Is about three years, and he de-
votes that time to killing fish, drinking
their blood and eating their flesh. He is
not only bloodthirsty, but he is lazy. To
save himself the trouble Of swimming no
will attach himself to the bottom OF boat 4
going in the direction he wants to travel
or to some fish which he does not particu-
larly fancy, but which will do for trans
portation PURPOSES and hang on until he
gets to his destination, meantime lunch
ing on tho transportation fish.
Tho lake lamprey has mouth bigger
than his head and the mouth Is armed
with rows of sharp teeth, pointed like tho
teeth of tiger Around the disk of Its
mouth the animal has soft membrane,
which readily fits tightly over any object
by suction when tho pistonlke tongue Is
drawn back, making a partial vacuum.
Then 1t saws away with the sharp pointed
teeth which clothc its tongue and chews
with the l50 other teeth which stud its
mouth until 1t has worn through the thick
skin or scales of It's victim. Thus itdrinks
blood and eats flesh until the fish dies or
the lamprey decides to change Its diet by
attacking another species Of fish.
Lampreys hunt individually, male and
female alike killing and manning right
and left. Besides tho dead fish which are
found in tho lakes Of central New York
killed by the lampreys hundreds are found
swimming about either covered with scars
or horribly mutilatcd, SO that their death
is only question Of short time
Professor Gage says that the lamprey
does as much to reduce the stock Of food
fish in Lake Cayuga as tho work of all the
fishermen combined. And yet when the
cutthroat isn't occupied in crime his Ca
pacity for innocent enjoyment and his
pleasures in domestic life are Just MS great
as those Of any other animal. About the
middle of April the male lamprey leaves
tho particular victim upon which he has
been feeding and starts up some stream
running into the lake to establish home.
Mr.. H. A. Surface of the department Of
vertebrate zoology of Cornell university, IN
summarizing Professor Cages story of the
.,,l od,,1,,tr.oc NJ tho In ,,pray cnvc.
sit not infrequently occurs that from the
natural inclination Of the stream or from
some of mans distractions there are rap
ids or dams to be surmounted. Nothing
dallnted, tho lamprcy swims up just as far
as possible by q tremendous effort, grasp
ing stone or other object so that he can
not be carried down stream again, rests
for awhile and by II powerful bending and
Strengthening of tho serpentine body
leap is made in tho right direction. and
what Is gained is saved By again fastening
the mouth to n fixed object This goes on
until the obstacle is surmounted, If it Is
not too great. Then without delay the
lamDrey pushes up stream until clear wa
ter and numerous ripplcs are found Just
above some ripple tho lamprey begins TO
make ready q secure place for u new gen
Grafton"
The male arrives first and begins the
nest building He takes up stones with
his strong mouth, nicely arrangcs them as
a foundation and generally prepares things
for housekeeping. He works hard for n
few days, and then Mrs. I.amprey arrives
to help put the new house in order. The
pair labor away until they have construct
ed o basin, or in somo cases ditch, across
the bed of tho stream. Then the lampreys
are at home
When the eggs are laid they sink to tho
bottom, and tho lampreys cover them up
with sand, using their tails as shovcls,
When the young lamprcys are hatched,
they burrow in the sand like small anglo
worms 1t is at least two years before
they arc old enough to go down to tho
lake and take up the predatorylfe of their
ancestors Mr.. Surface says 1T is posi-
bly, from tho habits of young lampreys
that the authors Of our First Readers
justified themselves in the statement 'Eels
live in the sand,
Now, while the terrible lake lamprey
deyotes all his lifo to eating except his
brief period of housebuilding and domeS-
ITCHY, there is another kind of lumprcy
found in central New York which has
never been known to cat at all. This is
the brook lamprey, which Is never found
in tho lakes but is common in small
streams 1t is supposed that he does all
his eating before Ito becomes real lam
prGy-in the larval period, rs the scien.
fists say--and is never hungry aftcrward,
As it takes him two or three years to de.
vclop into real lamprcy and he lives only
q few months after he is developed, this
seems likely, or it may he that when he
grows up and secs the horrible gluttony of
his lake cousins he is so Disguised that he
deliberately starves himself to DEATH
Tho lamprcy tribe docs not seem to he
able to do anything in sensible and mod
crate manner. Here are twoiirst cousins,
one of whom starvc himself to death and
the other of whom kills and cats every
thing no comes across. The lamprcy's
original and normal home is the sea- and
it exists in its original form today in the
seas which wash the shores Of Europe and
North America 1t Is not, however, the
mutton fish, or ling, which the fishermen
in the salt waters about here call lamprcys,
but n ilshlilc animal, more resembling its
cousins of tho lakes III form. In tho
changes of the earth's periods the salt sea
lanprcy found itself landlocked in the
fresh water lakes of central New York 1t
might have gone up there to spawn when
a river connected the lakes with salt water
and have been caught there by some clos
ing up of the stream by which it had de-
scendod At any rate, it has been abb to
adapt itself to q fresh water life the yoar
round and has grown, as the years go on,
smaller in size and more uniform in color,
to become tho rayenous, bloouthirsty ami
nal it Is.
Sea lamprcysarc sometimes used as food
now and used to be esteemed delicacies.
! Henry of EnRand is said to have died
from eating too many lamproys, New
York Press.