The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-21
THE LAMPREY's NATURAL HrsroRY
A Remarkable Species of Eel which
Were Formerly Thought Good
Joe English in Mirror and Farmer.

Were Formerly Thought GOOD
Eating.
Joe English in Mirror and Farmer.
The good Old days of fishing for lamper
ee{s at Amoskeag Falls are gone. proba-
bly, never 10 return--gone with the equally
good old days OF wild pigeon shooting and
trapping. Few of the younger generation
know anything about the sport of eel TAX
ing as 1t was successfully followed years
ago by the older residents. and the fol-
lowing Bit of history concerning this once
popular table fish is not amiss az this sea-
son when an kinds of fresh-water fishing
Is near its hight
Did ever catch lamprey, eel?" said
the professor. mo, l never did. And no
one else ever caught iamprey eel, either
because lamprey eel isn't an eel al an
In fact, IT is stree ching a point a little to
even eau the lampreS a fish. But it Is an
interesting creature Instead of having gill
openings as all true fish have, through
winch 10 pump water on The gills and eN-
tract the oxygen, the lamprey has It's 8 lis
lnciosed on pouches on each side of its
throat. Any one who has ever seen a lam
prey and didn't know the history of the
creature has wondered what the row of
seven holes ON each side OF its neck were
for
These holes are there because the lam
prey isn't hted with gill openings, But
tor them the lamprey would have to have
lungs, ana then ii wouldn't be a fish ID
would be a reptile. The lamprey's nose is
on top of its head. in the center. and il
mas hut one nostril Through this single
noSrll the lamprey draws in The water
that Is TO supply IL with oxygen. The wa
ter Is conducted through a tube that dis
charges it into the gin pouches. where the
gilis extract the oxygen. Then other tubes
garry the deoNygenized water from the
giils to the two rows of holes along the
neck from which il is elected.
The lampreys mouth is round and
formed for suction. Il has no jaws, but
has sharp, hook-shaped teeth on the
tongue and on the walls of the mouth
The creature has no paired fins, most
the lampreys sexes are strongly defined
and instead of going from fresh water to
the sea in the fall, like the eel, to spawn
II leaNeS the sea IN the spring and seeks
fresh water streams to build its nest, lay
It's eggs and hatch its young.
Some fishermen charge that the eel Is
destructive enemy of the gill met shad
fisheries in the Hudson and other shad
rivers They declare that it is not an in
frequent thing to haul i'm a nct and find
the greater part of the catch to consist
simply of heads and hackbones of shad.
the remainder having been devoured by
cells.
u have heard fishermen saw that they
have often found shad, apparently full of
roe, to contain instead of roe several cells
that had forced themselves into the shad
and dined on the roe and Cntrails. II
these fishermen will look a little closer, /
guess they'll find that IL isn't the eel a
all that is guilty of such destruction to the
shad, but that IL is the lamprey that runs
amuck among tnem.
THE lamprey leaves the ocean in great
numbers in March, proceeds 20 the head
of Underwater in the rivers and there act
ually lies in wait among the rocks for the
shad that Will soon be pushing their way
up stream TO spawn The iamprey fol-
lows the shad on this Interesting journey
fastening itself TO the delicate fish by It's
mouth, which is simply an-armed sucking
disc with eXtraordin ary adhesive lower.
The lamprey is ALWAYS found fastened NJ
from ShAH
eggs. and from which il sucks the roe,
at the same time rasping the tender flesh
of the fish with its sharp -toothet tongue,
drawing blood from the shad TO wash
down the raped roe into its nav The
shad having by June become iitue proai
TO the iamprey, the latter sets about at
tending TO its own family affairs.
THE female lamprey builds her nest in
a swift current, making an excavation
sometimes TWO feet deep she frequently
removes as much as wheelbarrow load
of stones in preparing her nest. She has
such strength that she can haul up from
the bottom stones weighing five pounds
more. Gluing her mouth to a stone. she
works backward, drawing the stone after
her. John +. Sawyer of SaWmill Rift
as she was in the act of hauling up a
stone in this way, and so firmly attached
was she TO the stone that il was lifted
into the boat with her. she being pulled
out of the water by her tail.
The male lamprey hovers about the
spot, while his mate is building the nest
watching her tugglng away al the stones
but never Offering any aid. AS soon as
the big nest is ready the female lamprey
deposits her eggs in IL and swms away
and dies / can remember when the
shores Of the Upper Delaware were lined
during the month of June with dead lam
preys and dead shad As soon as Matched
the young lampreys go ashore and bury
themselves in the sand, where they are
found by eager fishermen who seek them
for bait for other fish Properly cooked,
the lamprey is good. There isn't a bone
MOI he aIfQn fpi of In
a lamprey in the sun and keep it there,
and 1t will melt like so much butter, the
only evidence that it ever existed being
a grease spot. A popularity of the lam
prey's flesh is that, although 1t will melt
away in the sun, 1t becomes tough when
put in the frying pan over a fire, and be-
comes tougher the longer 1t is fried The
only way il can be cooked so as TO be fit
for the table is by stewing It,"