Letter XVIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Selborne, July 27, 1768.

Dear Sir,

I received your obliging and communicative letter of June the 28th,
while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where I had neither
books to turn to, nor leisure to sit down, to return you an answer to
many queries, which I wanted to resolve in the best manner that I
am able.

A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could find no
such fish as the gasterosteus pungitius: he found the gasterosteus
aculeatus in plenty. This morning, in a basket, I packed a little
earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some sticklebacks, male and
female; the females big with spawn: some lamperns; some bull's
heads; but I could produce no minnows. This basket will be in
Fleet-street by eight this evening; so I hope Mazel will have them
fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I gave some directions, in a
letter, to what particulars the engraver should be attentive.

Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reasonable
distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and
procured several diving specimens of loaches, which he brought,
safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the gullies