The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-19
WERE ONCE TREAT IN
 NEW ENGLAND
Gen. Stark Refused To Give One of 16 Barrels to
 Neighborhood.

boyhood days by dinner of lam-
 preys, locally known in the olden
 time as Hamper ee1s because of their
 superficial resemblance to the true
 eel The structure of the lamprey
 places 1t low down in the ranks of
 the fishes. In fact, a strict classi-
 fication excludes it from them.
 The lamprey is vertebrate with
 out bone. Its spine is but cartilage,
 and there are no other tissues that
 are even as hard as cartilage. It has
 g. sucking mouth and seven gill open
 ings on each side of the body back
 of the head. It is the mouth and it's
 peculiar use that are described in it's
 scientific name, Petromyzon marinus,
 meaning ocean stone sucker. The color of the sea lamprey (to distin- guish it from the little lampreys of the rivers) is brown mottled with
 black. Its maximum length is about
 three feet,
 In the early days of New Hamp- shire lampreys came up the Merri- mac and other rivers by myriad thousands and were caught by the
 settlers and salted down for the years supply of. meat as were salmon, shad and alewives that came up from the ocean at the same time early sum- mer and for the same purpose, the depositing of their spawn in the fresh waters of the rivers and lakes Most of the fish were caught with seines and dipnets.
 The lampreys were caught by hand in the shallower water of the brooks The fishermen waded in where the water was shallow and the current swift and watched for the "eels'' as the lampreys were invariably called In a rapid current lampreys progress by darting for a short distance and then clinging by the sucking mouth to a stone while resting for another plunge. It was then that the men
 seized them and threw them to the
 shore, where helpers put them into | receptacles.
 So important was the catching of fish in those days in the town of Der ryfield, now Manchester, that all
 work was suspended when they ar
 rived. There is a etory that lacks
 verification to the effect that the man
 appointed to watch for the advent of
 the fish spied the vanguard on a Sun
 day morning. He hastened to the
 meeting house. where most of the
 town was assembled, and interrupted
 the sermon with the cry: "The fish
 have come. The fish have come!"
 The preacher stopped, pronounced
 the benediction, and the men all went
 fishing.
 There is another story that Gen.
 Stark, who had settled down on his
 farm after the Revolution, was ask
 ed by a neighbor. for the loan of
 barrel of "eels' for the winter. The
 general replied that he couldn't spare
 any, for he had but 16 barrels to last
 him till spring. .f s However much or little truth there
 may be in these stories, it is a fact
 that lampreys formed an important
 part of the food of the settlers of
 Manchester. In 1851 at the centen-
 nial celebration of the incorporation
 of the town a poem was read by, Will liam Stark in which he thus referred
 to the lampreys.
 Our fathers treasured the slimp prize
 They loved the eel as their very eyes, And of one 'tis said with a islander rife For a string of eels he sold his wife
 From the cells they formed their food in chief,
 And eeIs were called the Derryfield beef,
 And the marks of ee1s were so plain to trace
 That the children looked like ee1s in the face.
 And before they walked it is we'll con- firmed
 That the children never crept. but squirmed.
 Such a mighty power did the squirm- CTS Wie1d
 Der the goodly men of old Derry It was often said that their only care
 Their only wish and their only prayer For the present world and the world to come
 Was a string of eels and a jug of rum. My fathers boyhood was passed in the days of the ''eels'', and long after the dams in the Merrimac stopped the ascent of the fish he bought lampreys | whenever they could be obtained from
 fishermen farther downstream. Thus I learned to eat and like them. It | them when recently T. was delighted | by the present of fine mess of them. | They carried me back a generation. Lampreys are found in the north Atlantic as far south as Virginia, be- sides being landlocked in some of the lakes in western and northern New York. While they are not abundant enough to make much impression on | the present cost of living. a knowledge | of their food value and the time and manner of catching them, minus pre- | judiee, would do a little toward solv-