ON THE BORA-CHUNG, OR "GROUND-FISH" OF BHOOTAN.
See [P. 353].
In Bhootan, at the south-eastern extremity of the Himalayas, a fish is found, the scientific name of which is unknown to me, but it is called by the natives the Bora-chung, and by European residents the "ground-fish of Bhootan." It is described in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1839, by a writer (who had seen it alive), as being about two feet in length, and cylindrical, with a thick body, somewhat shaped like a pike, but rounder, the nose curved upwards, the colour olive-green, with orange stripes, and the head speckled with crimson.[3681] This fish, according to the native story, is caught not in the rivers in whose vicinity it is found, but "in perfectly dry places in the middle of grassy jungle, sometimes as far as two miles from the banks." Here, on finding a hole four or five inches in diameter, they commence to dig, and continue till they come to water; and presently the bora-chung rises to the surface, sometimes from a depth of nineteen feet. In these extemporised wells these fishes are found always in pairs, and I when brought to the surface they glide rapidly over the ground with a serpentine motion. This account appeared in 1839; but some years later, Mr. Campbell, the Superintendent of Darjeeling, in a communication to the same journal[3682], divested the story of much of its exaggeration, by stating, as the result of personal inquiry in Bhootan, that the bora-chung inhabits the jheels and slow-running streams near the hills, but lives principally on the banks, into which it penetrates from one to five or six feet. The entrance to these retreats leading from the river into the bank is generally a few inches below the surface, so that the fish can return to the water at pleasure. The mode of catching them is by introducing the hand into these holes; and the bora-chungs are found generally two in each chamber, coiled concentrically like snakes. It is not believed that they bore their own burrows, but that they take possession of those made by land-crabs. Mr. Campbell denies that they are more capable than other fish of moving on dry ground. From the particulars given, the bora-chung would appear to be an Ophiocephalus, probably the O. barka described by Buchanan, as inhabiting holes in the banks of rivers tributary to the Ganges.
Footnote 3231: [(return)]
A Selection of the most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes found on the Coast of Ceylon. By J.W. BENNETT, Esp. London, 1830.
Footnote 3232: [(return)]
Histoire Naturelle des Poissons.
Footnote 3241: [(return)]
See note B appended to this chapter.
Footnote 3242: [(return)]
Cybium (Scomber, Linn.) guttatum.
Footnote 3243: [(return)]
These facts serve to explain the story told by the friar ODORIC of Friuli, who visited Ceylon about the year 1320 A.D., and says there are "fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said country in such abundance that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be seen but the backs of fishes, which casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to take as many of them as they please, and then they return again into the sea."—Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 57.
Footnote 3251: [(return)]
There are other species of Sardine found at Ceylon besides the S. Neohowii; such as the S. lineolata, Cuv. and Val. and the S. leiogaster, Cuv. and Val. xx. 270, which was found by M. Reynaud at Trincomalie. It occurs also off the coast of Java. Another Ceylon fish of the same group, a Clupea, is known as the "poisonous sprat;" the bonito (Thynnus affinis, Cang.), the kangewena, or unicorn fish (Balistes?), and a number of others, are more or less in bad repute from the same imputation.
Footnote 3252: [(return)]
Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, P. cuspidatus and P. pectinatus.
Footnote 3271: [(return)]
Raja narinari, Bl. Schn. p. 361. Aëtobates narinari, Müll. und Henle., Plagiost. p. 179.
Footnote 3281: [(return)]
ÆLIAN tells a story of a ship in the Black Sea, the bottom of which was penetrated by the sword of a Xiphias (L. xiv. c. 23); and PLINY (L. xxxii. c. 8) speaks of a similar accident on the coast of Mauritania. In the British Museum there is a specimen of a plank of oak, pierced by a sword-fish, and still retaining the broken weapon.
Footnote 3301: [(return)]
Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 71. Pl. 15.
Footnote 3302: [(return)]
[Greek: Podas ge mên chêlas ê pterygia.]
—Lib. xvi. c. 18.
Footnote 3303: [(return)]
The fish from which this drawing of the Cheironectes was made, was taken near Colombo, and from the peculiarities which it presents it is in all probability a new and undescribed species. Dr. G&ÜNTHER has remarked, that in it, whilst the first and second dorsal spines are situated as usual over the eye (and form, one the angling bait of the fish, the other the crest above the nose), the third is at an unusual distance from the second, and is not separated, as in the other species, from the soft fin by a notch.
Footnote 3321: [(return)]
Cuv. and VALEN., Hist. Nat. des Poissons, tom. xi. p. 249. It is identical with S. tridactylus, Schn.
Footnote 3322: [(return)]
Pterois muricata, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. Scarpæna miles, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "Maharata-gini," the Great Red Fire, a very brilliant red species spotted with black. It is very voracious, and is regarded on some parts of the coast as edible, while on others it is rejected.
Footnote 3323: [(return)]
Glyphisodon Brownriggii, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; Choetodon Brownriggii, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called Kaha hartikyha by the natives. It is distinct from Choetodon, in which BENNETT placed it. Numerous species of this genus are scattered throughout the Indian Ocean. It derives its name from the fine hair-like character of its teeth. They are found chiefly among coral reefs, and, though eaten, are not much esteemed. In the French colonies they are called "Chauffe-soleil." One species is found on the shores of the New World (G. saxatalis), and it is curious that Messrs. QUOY and GAIMARD found this fish at the Cape de Verde Islands in 1827.
Footnote 3331: [(return)]
This fish has a sharp round spine on the side of the body near the tail; a formidable weapon, which is generally partially concealed within a scabbard-like incision. It raises or depresses this spine at pleasure. The fish is yellow, with several nearly parallel blue stripes on the back and sides; the belly is white, the tail and fins brownish green, edged with blue.
It is found in rocky places; and according to BENNETT, who has figured it in his second plate, it is named Seweya. It has been known, however, to all the old ichthyologists, Valentyn, Renard, Seba, Artedi, and has been named Chætodon lineatus, by Linné. It is scarce on the southern coast of Ceylon.
Footnote 3351: [(return)]
The fish from the Sea of Pinang, described by Dr. CANTOR with this name (Catal. Mal. Fish. p. 42), is again different, and belongs to a third species.
Footnote 3352: [(return)]
Fishes of Ceylon, Pl. ix.
Footnote 3353: [(return)]
This is the fish figured by BENNETT as Sparus pepo. Fishes of Ceylon, Plate xxviii.
Footnote 3354: [(return)]
In extenuation of the little that is known of the fresh-water fishes of Ceylon, it may be observed that very few of them are used at table by Europeans, and there is therefore no stimulus on the part of the natives to catch them. The burbot and grey mullet are occasionally eaten, but they taste of mud, and are not in request.
Some years ago the experiment was made, with success, of introducing into Mauritius the Osphromenus olfax of Java, which has also been taken to French Guiana. In both places it is now highly esteemed as a fish for table. As it belongs to a family which possesses the faculty, hereafter alluded to, of surviving in the damp soil after the subsidence of the water in the tanks and rivers, it might with equal advantage be acclimated in Ceylon. It grows to 20 lbs. weight and upwards.
Footnote 3371: [(return)]
Holocentrus quadrilineatus, Bloch. It is allied to Helotes polytoenia, Bleek., from Halmaheira which it can be readily distinguished by having only five or six blackish longitudinal bands, the black humeral spot being between the first and second; another blackish blotch is in the spinous dorsal fin. There are two specimens in the British Museum collection, one of which has recently arrived from Amoy; of the other the locality is unknown. See G&ÜNTHER, Acanthopt. Fishes, vol. i. p. 282, where mention of the black humeral spot has been omitted.
Footnote 3381: [(return)]
See G&ÜNTHER'S Acanthopt. Fishes, vol. iii. (Family Mastacembelidæ).
Footnote 3382: [(return)]
See post, p. 351.
Footnote 3383: [(return)]
CUV. and VAL., Hist. Poiss. vol. iii. p. 459.
Footnote 3384: [(return)]
Nat. Hist. Aleppo, 2nd edit. Lond. 1794, vol. ii. p. 208, pl. vi.
Footnote 3391: [(return)]
Macrognathus armatus, Lacép.; Mastacembelus armatus, Cuv., Val.
Footnote 3392: [(return)]
Knox's Historical Relation of Ceylon, Part i. ch. vii. The occurrence of fish in the most unlooked-for situations, is one of the mysteries of other eastern countries as well as Ceylon and India. In Persia irrigation is carried on to a great extent by means of wells sunk in line in the direction in which it is desired to lead a supply of water, and these are connected by channels, which are carefully arched over to protect them from evaporation. These kanats, as they are called, are full of fish, although neither they nor the wells they unite have any connection with streams or lakes.
Footnote 3401: [(return)]
Knox, Historical Relation of Ceylon, Part i. ch vi.
Footnote 3411: [(return)]
As anglers, the native Singhalese exhibit little expertness; but for fishing the rivers, they construct with singular ingenuity fences formed of strong stakes, protected by screens of ratan, that stretch diagonally across the current; and along these the fish are conducted into a series of enclosures from which retreat is impracticable. MR. LAYARD, in the Magazine of Natural History for May, 1853, has given a diagram of one of these fish "corrals," as they are called, of which a copy is shown on the next page.
Footnote 3421: [(return)]
I had an opportunity, on one occasion only, of witnessing the phenomenon which gives rise to this popular belief. I was driving in the cinnamon gardens near the fort of Colombo, and saw a violent but partial shower descend at no great distance before me. On coming to the spot I found a multitude of small silvery fish from one and a half to two inches in length, leaping on the gravel of the high road, numbers of which I collected and brought away in my palankin. The spot was about half a mile from the sea, and entirely unconnected with any watercourse or pool.
Mr. Whiting, who was many years resident in Trincomadie, writes me that he "had often been told by the natives on that side of the island that it sometimes rained fishes; and on one occasion" (he adds) "I was taken by them, in 1849, to a field at the village of Karrancotta-tivo, near Batticaloa, which was dry when I passed over it in the morning, but, had been covered in two hours by sudden rain to the depth of three inches, in which there was then a quantity of small fish. The water had no connection with any pond or stream whatsoever." Mr. Cripps, in like manner, in speaking of Galle, says: "I have seen in the vicinity of the fort, fish taken from rain-water that had accumulated in the hollow parts of land that in the hot season are perfectly dry and parched. The place is accessible to no running stream or tank; and either the fish or the spawn from which they were produced, must of necessity have fallen with the rain."
Mr. J. PRINSEP, the eminent secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, found a fish in the pulviometer at Calcutta, in 1838.—Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. vi. p. 465.
A series of instances in which fishes have been found on the continent of India under circumstances which lead to the conclusion that they must have fallen from the clouds, have been collected by the late Dr. BUIST of Bombay, and will be found in the appendix to this chapter.
Footnote 3431: [(return)]
YARRELL, History of British Fishes, introd. vol. i. p. xxvi. This too was the opinion of Aristotle, De Respiratione, c. ix.
Footnote 3451: [(return)]
Chap. ix.
Footnote 3452: [(return)]
Lib. vi. ch. 15, 16, 17.
Footnote 3461: [(return)]
Lib. viii. ch. 2.
Footnote 3462: [(return)]
Ib. ch. 4.
Footnote 3463: [(return)]
Lib. iv. and xii.
Footnote 3464: [(return)]
Lib. xlii. ch. 2.
Footnote 3471: [(return)]
D. Hancockii, CUV. et VAL.
Footnote 3472: [(return)]
Sir R. Schomburgk's Fishes of Guiana, vol. i. pp. 113, 151, 160. Another migratory fish was found by Bose very numerous in the fresh waters of Carolina and in ponds liable to become dry in summer. When captured and placed on the ground, "they always, directed themselves towards the nearest water, which they could not possibly see, and which they must have discovered by some internal index. They belong to the genus Hydrargyra and are called Swampines.—KIRBY, Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 143.
Eels kept in a garden, when August arrived (the period at which instinct impels them to go to the sea to spawn) were in the habit of leaving the pond, and were invariably found moving eastward in the direction of the sea.—YARRELL, vol. ii. p. 384. Anglers observe that fish newly caught, when placed out of sight of water, always struggle towards it to escape.
Footnote 3481: [(return)]
PALLEGOIX, vol. i. p. 144.
Footnote 3482: [(return)]
Sir J. BOWERING'S Siam, &c., vol. i. p. 10.
Footnote 3483: [(return)]
CUVIER and VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, tom. vii. p. 246.
Footnote 3484: [(return)]
Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., May, 1853, p. 390. Mr. Morris, the government-agent of Trincomalie, writing to me on this subject in 1856, says—"I was lately on duty inspecting the kind of a large tank at Nade-cadua, which, being out of repair, the remaining water was confined in a small hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst there heavy rain came on, and, as we stood on the high ground, we, observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging himself; our people went towards him and raised a cry of fish! fish! We hurried down, and found numbers of fish struggling upwards through the grass in the rills formed by the trickling of the rain. There was scarcely water enough to cover them, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up the bank, on which our followers collected about two bushels of them at a distance of forty yards from the tank. They were forcing their way up the knoll, and, had they not been intercepted first by the pelican and afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes have gained the highest point and descended on the other side into a pool which formed another portion of the tank. They were chub, the same as are found in the mud after the tanks dry up." In a subsequent communication in July, 1857, the same gentleman says—"As the tanks dry up the fish congregate in the little pools till at last you find them in thousands in the moistest parts of the beds, rolling in the blue mud which is at that time about the consistence of thick gruel."
"As the moisture further evaporates the surface fish are left uncovered, and they crawl away in search of fresh pools. In one place I saw hundreds diverging in every direction, from the tank they had just abandoned to a distance of fifty or sixty yards, and still travelling onwards. In going this distance, however, they must have used muscular exertion sufficient to have taken them half a mile on level ground, for at these places all the cattle and wild animals of the neighbourhood had latterly come to drink; so that the surface was everywhere indented with footmarks in addition to the cracks in the surrounding baked mud, into which the fish tumbled in their progress. In those holes which were deep and the sides perpendicular they remained to die, and were carried off by kites and crows."
"My impression is that this migration takes place at night or before sunrise, for it was only early in the morning that I have seen them progressing, and I found that those I brought away with me in chatties appeared quiet by day, but a large proportion managed to get out of the chatties at night—some escaped altogether, others were trodden on and killed."
"One peculiarity is the large size of the vertebral column, quite disproportioned to the bulk of the fish. I particularly noticed that all in the act of migrating had their gills expanded."
Footnote 3491: [(return)]
Fishes of the Ganges, 4to. 1822.
Footnote 3501: [(return)]
Transactions Linn. Soc. vol. iii. p. 63. It is remarkable, however, that this discovery of Daldorf, which excited so great an interest in 1791, had been anticipated by an Arabian voyager a thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, the compiler of the remarkable MS. known since Renaudot's translation by the title of the Travels of the Two Mahometans, states that Suleyman, one of his informants, who visited India at the close of the ninth century, was told there of a fish which, issuing from the waters, ascended the coco-nut palms to drink their sap, and returned to the sea. "On parle d'un poisson de mer qui, sortant de l'eau, monte sur la cocotier et boit le suc de la plante; ensuite il retourne á la mer." See REINAUD, Rélations des Voyages faits par les Arabes et Persans dans le neuvième siècle, tom. i. p, 21, tom. ii. p. 93.
Footnote 3502: [(return)]
Kirby says that it is "in pursuit of certain crustaceans that form its food" (Bridgewater Treatise, vol i. p. 144); but I am not aware of any crustaceans in the island which ascend the palmyra or feed upon its fruit. The Birgus latro, which inhabits Mauritius, and is said to climb the coco-nut for this purpose, has not been observed in Ceylon.
Footnote 3511: [(return)]
This assertion must be qualified by a fact stated by Mr. E.A. Layard, who mentions that on visiting one of the fishing stations on a Singhalese river, where the fish are caught in staked enclosures, as described at p. 342, and observing that the chambers were covered with netting, he asked the reason, and was told "that some of the fish climbed up the sticks and got over."—Mag. Nat. Hist, for May 1823, p. 390-1.
Footnote 3512: [(return)]
Strange accidents have more than once occurred at Ceylon arising from the habit of the native anglers; who, having neither baskets nor pockets in which to place what they catch, will seize a fish in their teeth whilst putting fresh bait on their hook. In August, 1853, a man was carried into the Pettah hospital at Colombo, having a climbing perch, which he thus attempted to hold, firmly imbedded in his throat. The spines of its dorsal fin prevented its descent, whilst those of the gill-covers equally forbade its return. It was eventually extracted by the forceps through an incision in the oesophagus, and the patient recovered. Other similar cases have proved fatal.
Footnote 3513: [(return)]
See ante, p. 285.
Footnote 3521: [(return)]
Lepidosiren annectans, Owen. See Linn. Trans. 1839.
Footnote 3522: [(return)]
This statement will be found in QUATREMERE'S Mémoires sur l'Egypte, tom. i. p. 17, on the authority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben Solaim Assouany, in his History of Nubia, "Simon, héritier présomptif du royanme d'Alouah, m'a assuré que l'on trouve, dans la vase qui couvre fond de cette rivière, un grand poisson sans écailles, qui ne ressemble en rien aux poissons du Nil, et que, pour l'avoir, il faut creuser à une toise et plus de profondeur." To this passage, there is appended this note:—"Le patriarche Mendes, cité par Legrand (Relation Hist. d' Abyssinie, du P. LOBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le fleuve Mareb, après avoir arrosé une étendue de pays considérable, se perd sous terre; et que quand les Portugais faisaient la guerre dans ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne eau et du ban poisson. An rapport de l'auteur de l' Ayin Akbery (tom. ii, p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le Soubah do Caschmir, pres du lieu nommé Tilahmoulah, est une grande pièce de terre qui est inondée pendant la saison des pluies. Lorsque les eaux se sont évaporées, et que la vase est presque séche, les habitans prennant des bâtons d'environ une aune do long, qu'ils enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y trouvent quantité de grands et petits poissons." In the library of the British Museum there is an unique MS. of MANOEL DE ALMEIDA, written in the sixteenth century, from which Balthasar Tellec compiled his Historia General de Ethiopia alta, printed at Coimbra in 1660, and in it the above statement of Mendes is corroborated by Almeida, who says that he was told by João Gabriel, a Creole Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who had visited the Mareb, and who said that the "fish were to be found everywhere eight or ten palms down, and that he had eaten of them."
Footnote 3531: [(return)]
See Paper "on some Species of Fishes and Reptiles in Demerara," by J. HANDCOCK, Esq., M.D., Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 243.
Footnote 3532: [(return)]
A curious account of the borachung or "ground fish" of Bhootan, will be found in Note (C.) appended to this chapter.
Footnote 3551: [(return)]
A knowledge of this fact was turned to prompt account by Mr. Edgar S. Layard, when holding a judicial office at Point Pedro in 1849. A native who had been defrauded of his land complained before him of his neighbour, who, during his absence, had removed their common landmark, diverting the original watercourse and obliterating its traces by filling it up to a level with the rest of the field. Mr. Layard directed a trench to be sunk at the contested spot, and discovering numbers of the Ampullaria, the remains of the eggs, and the living animal which had been buried for months, the evidence was so resistless as to confound the wrong-doer, and terminate the suit.
Footnote 3552: [(return)]
For a similar fact relative to the shells and water beetles in the pools near Rio Janeiro, see DARWIN'S Nat. Journal, ch. v. p. 99. BENSON, in the first vol. of Gleanings of Science, published at Calcutta in 1829, describes a species of Paludina found in pools, which are periodically dried up in the hot season but reappear with the rains, p. 363. And in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for Sept. 1832, Lieut. HUTTON, in a singularly interesting paper, has followed up the same subject by a narrative of his own observations at Mirzapore, wherein June, 1832, after a few heavy showers of rain, that formed pools on the surface of the ground near a mango grove, he saw the Paludinæ issuing from the ground, "pushing aside the moistened earth and coming forth from their retreats; but on the disappearance of the water not one of them was to be seen above ground. Wishing to ascertain what had become of them he turned up the earth at the base of several trees, and invariably found the shells buried from an inch to two inches below the surface." Lieut. Hutton adds that the Ampullariæ and Planorbes, as well as the Paludinæ are found in similar situations during the heats of the dry season. The British Pisidea exibit the same faculty (see a monograph in the Camb. Phil. Trans. vol. iv.). The fact is elsewhere alluded to in the present work of the power possessed by the land leech of Ceylon of retaining vitality even after being parched to hardness during the heat of the rainless season. LYELL mentions the instance of some snails in Italy which, when they hybernate, descend to the depth of five feet and more below the surface. Princip. of Geology, &c, p. 373.
Footnote 3561: [(return)]
HUNTER'S Observations on parts of the Animal Oeconomy, p. 88.
Footnote 3562: [(return)]
Centetes ecaudatus, Illiger.
Footnote 3571: [(return)]
Annals of Natural History, 1860. See Dr. BAIRD'S Account of Helix desertorum; Excelsior, &c., ch. i. p. 345.
Footnote 3572: [(return)]
Colonel SKYES has described in the Entomological Trans. the operations of an ant in India which lays up a store of hay against the rainy season.
Footnote 3581: [(return)]
YARRELL, vol. i. p. 364, quotes the authority of Dr. J. Hunter in his Animal Oeconomy, that fish, "after being frozen still retain so much of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions;" and in-the same volume (Introd. vol. i. p. xvii.) he relates from JESSE'S Gleanings in Natural History, the story of a gold fish (Cyprinus auratus), which, together with the a marble basin, was frozen into one solid lump of ice, yet, on the water being thawed, the fish became as lively as usual. Dr. RICHARDSON in the third vol of his Fauna Borealis Americana, says the grey sucking carp, found in the fur countries of North America, may be frozen and thawed again without being killed in the process.
Footnote 3582: [(return)]
See SIR J. EMERSON TENNET's Ceylon, &c., vol. ii. p. 496.
Footnote 3591: [(return)]
CUV. and VAL., vol. iii. p. 363. In addition to the two fishes above named, a loche Cobitis thermalis, and a carp, Nuria thermoicos, were found in the hot-springs of Kannea, at a heat 40° Cent., 114° Fahr., and a roach, Leuciscus thermalis, when the thermometer indicated 50° Cent, 122° Fahr.—Ib. xviii. p. 59, xvi. p. 182, xvii. p. 94. Fish have been taken from a hot spring at Pooree when the thermometer stood at 112° Fahr., and as they belonged to a carnivorous genus, they must have found prey living in the same high temperature.—Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Beng. vol. vi. p. 465. Fishes have been observed in a hot spring at Manila which raises the thermometer to 187°, and in another in Barbary, the usual temperature of which is 172°; and Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South America, saw fishes thrown up alive from a volcano, in water that raised the temperature to 210°, being two degrees below the boiling point. PATTERSON'S Zoology, Pt. ii. p. 211; YARRELL'S History of British Fishes, vol. i. In. p. xvi.
Footnote 3681: [(return)]
Paper by Mr. J.T. PEARSON, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. viii p. 551.
Footnote 3682: [(return)]
Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xi. p. 963.