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.