The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-10-06
AN()LD TINE treat
Lampreys Once a Fairly Coveted
Dish In New England.
PRIZED BY GENERAL STARK.

ThIZEU 81 GENEhAL = Ann.
The Old Hero Even Refused One Year
to Give UP One of His Sixteen Bar
rels to an Eel Hungry Neishbor.
Their Former Fame Sung In Verse.
was recently carried back to my
boyhood days by dinner of lampreys,
locally known In the olden time as lam.
per eels because of their superficial re-
semblance to the true eel. The struc.
ture Of the lamprey places 1t low down
In the ranks of the fishes. In fact, a
strict classification excludes 1t from
them.
The lamprey Is a vertebrate without
there are no other tissues that are even
as hard as cartilage. 1t has a sucking
mouth and seven gill openings on each
side OF the body back of the head 1t
Is the mouth and it's peculiar use that
are described in lis scientific name,
Peromyzon marinus, meaning ocean
stone sucker. The color of the sea
lamprey Ito distinguish 1t from the lit
tie lampreys of the riyers) is brown
mottled with black. It's maximum
length is about three feet.
In the early days of New Hampshire
lampreys came up the Merrimac 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
time early summer 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 wa
ter was shallow and the current swifi
and watched for the "eels,' as the
Iampreys were invariably called. In
darting for short distance and then
clinging by the sucking mouth to q
stone while resting for another plunge
1t 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
ryfleld, now Manchester, that all work
was suspended when they arrived
There is story that lacks verifca-
ton to the effect that the man appoint
ed to watch for the advent Of the fish
spied the vanguard on a Sunday morn
ing. He FASTENED to the meeting
house, where most Of the town was as.
sembled, and interrupted the sermon
with the cry: The fish have come
The fish have Gomez The preacher
stopped, pronounced the benediction
and the men all went fishing.
There is another story that General
Stark, who had settled down on his
farm after the Revolution, was asked
by nelghbor for the loan of a barrel
Of "eels" for the winter The general
replied that he couldn't spare any, for
he had but sixteen barrels to last him
till spring.
However much or little truth there
may be In these stories, 1t is a fact
that lampreys formed an important
part of the food of the settlers of Man
chester In 1851 at the centennial eel
ebration OF the incorporation of the
town a poem was read by William
Stark in which he thus referred to the
lampreys:
Our Fathers treasured the Shiny prize.
They loved the eel as their very eyes,
And Of one It's said with q slander rife
For a string OF cells he sold his wife.
From the cells they formed their food In
chief.
And cells were called the Derryfeld beef.
And the marks Of cells We're so plain to
trace
That the children looked Ike cells in the
face.
And before they walked it is well con-
frmed
That the children never crept. but
squirmed
Such a mighty power aid the aqulrmers
WELD
Ger the goodly men Of old Derryfleld
1t was often said that their only care,
Their only wish and their only prayer
For the present world and the world to
come
Was string of cells and 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. 1t was
many years since | had tasted them
when recently l was delighted by the
present Of a fine mess Of them. They
carried me back a generation.
Lampreys are fond in the north At
lantic as far south as Virginia, besides
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 pres
ent cost of living, knowledge Of their
food value and the time and manner
Of catching them, minus prejudice,
would do little toward solving a mod.
ern problem.-W H. Huse In Rural
New Yorker.