Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 27

BATRACHIA.

Rana cutipora, _Dum. & Bib._ Kuhlii, _Schleg._ vittigera, _Wiegm._ robusta, _Blyth._ tigrina, _Daud._ _Leschenaultii, Dum & Bib._ Kandiana, _Kelaart._ Neuera-elliana, _Kelaart._ Rana Malabarica, _Dum. & Bib._ Ixalus variabilis, _Gray._ leucorhinus, _Martens._ poecilopleurus, _Martens._ aurifasciatus, _Dum. & Bib._ Pyxicephalus fodiens, _Jerd._ Polypedates leucomystax, _Gray._ Polypedates microtympanum, _Gray._ eques, _Gray._ _stellata, Kelaart._ _schmardana, Kelaart._ Limnodytes lividus, _Blyth._ macularis, _Blyth._ mutabilis, _Kelaart._ maculatus, _Kelaart._ Bufo melanostictus, _Schneid._ Kelaartii, _Gray._ Engystoma marmoratum, _Cuv._ rubrum, _Jerd._ Kaloula pulchra, _Gray._ balteata, _Gunther._

PSEUDOPHIDIA.

Caecilia glutinosa, _Linn._

NOTE.--The following species are peculiar to Ceylon; and the genera Aspidura, Cercaspis, and Haplocercus would appear to be similarly restricted. Trimesurus Ceylonensis, T. nigro-marginatus; Megaera Trigonocephala; Trigonocephalus hypnalis; Daboia elegans; Cylindrophis maculata; Aspidura brachyorrhos; Haplocercus Ceylonensis; OliG.o.don sublineatus; Cynophis Helena; Cyclophis calamaria; Dipsadomorphus Ceylonensis; Cercaspis carinata; Ixalus variabilis, I. Leucorhinus, I.

poecilopleurus; Polypedates microtympanum, P. eques.

CHAP. IV.

FISHES.

Little has been yet done to examine and describe the fishes of Ceylon, especially those which frequent the rivers and inland waters. Mr.

Bennett, who was for some years employed in the Civil Service, directed his attention to the subject, and published in 1830 some portions of a projected work on the marine ichthyology of the island[1], but it never proceeded beyond the description of about thirty individuals. The great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes[2] particularises about one hundred species, specimens of which were procured from Ceylon by Reynard Leschenault and other correspondents, but of these not more than half a dozen belong to fresh water.

[Footnote 1: _A Selection of the most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes found on the Coast of Ceylon_. By J.W. BENNETT, Esq. London, 1830.]

[Footnote 2: _Historie Naturelle des Poissons_.]

The fishes of the coast, so far as they have been examined, present few which are not common to the seas of Ceylon and India. A series of drawings, including upwards of six hundred species and varieties, of Ceylon fish, all made from recently-captured specimens, has been submitted to Professor Huxley, and a notice of their general characteristics forms an interesting article in the appendix to the present chapter.[1]

[Footnote 1: See note C to this chapter.]

Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the Seir-fish[1], a species of s...o...b..r, which is called _Tora-malu_ by the natives. It is in size and form very similar to the salmon, to which the flesh of the female fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very close resemblance both in firmness and flavour.

[Footnote 1: Cybium (s...o...b..r, _Linn_.) guttatum.]

Mackerel, dories, carp, whitings, mullet, red and striped, perches and soles, are abundant, and a sardine (_Sardinella Neohowii_, Val.) frequents the southern and eastern coast in such profusion that on one instance in 1839 a gentleman, who was present, saw upwards of four hundred thousand taken in a haul of the nets in the little bay of Goyapanna, east of Point-de-Galle. As this vast shoal approached the sh.o.r.e the broken water became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been floating below the surface.[1]

[Footnote 1: These facts serve to explain the story told by the friar ODORIC of Friule, who visited India 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 sh.o.r.e, do suffer men for the s.p.a.ce 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.]

_Poisonous Fishes_.--The sardine has the reputation of being poisonous at certain seasons, and accidents ascribed to its use are recorded in all parts of the island. Whole families of fishermen who have partaken of it have died. Twelve persons in the jail of Chilaw were thus poisoned about the year 1829; and the deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been ascribed to the same cause. It is difficult in such instances to say with certainty whether the fish were in fault; whether there may not have been a peculiar susceptibility in the condition of the recipients; or whether the mischief may not have been occasioned by the wilful administration of poison, or its accidental occurrence in the bra.s.s cooking vessels used by the natives. The popular belief was, however, deferred to by an order pa.s.sed by the Governor in Council in February, 1824, which, after reciting that "Whereas it appears by information conveyed to the Government that at three several periods at Trincomalie death has been the consequence to several persons from eating the fish called Sardinia during the months of January and December," enacts that it shall not be lawful in that district to catch sardines during these months, under pain of fine and imprisonment. This order is still in force, but the fis.h.i.+ng continues notwithstanding.[1]

[Footnote 1: There are two species of Sardine at Ceylon; the _S.

neohowii_, Val., alluded to above, and the _S. leiogaster_, Val. and Cuv. xx. 270, which was found by Mr. 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 (_s...o...b..r pelamys?_), the kangewena, or unicorn fish (_Balistes?_), and a number of others, are more or less in bad repute from the same imputation.]

_Sharks_.--Sharks appear on all parts of the coast, and instances continually occur of persons being seized by them whilst bathing even in the harbours of Trincomalie and Colombo. In the Gulf of Manaar they are taken for the sake of their oil, of which they yield such a quant.i.ty that "shark's oil" is now a recognised export. A trade also exists in drying their fins, and from the gelatine contained in them, they find a ready market in China, to which the skin of the basking shark is also sent;--it is said to be there converted into s.h.a.green.

_Saw Fish._--The huge saw fish, the _Pristis antiquorum_[1], infests the eastern coast of the island[2], where it attains a length of from twelve to fifteen feet, including the powerful weapon from which its name is derived.

[Footnote 1: Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, _P.

cuspidatus_ and _P. pectinatus_.]

[Footnote 2: ELIAN mentions, amongst the extraordinary marine animals found in the seas around Ceylon, a fish _with feet instead of fins; [Greek: poias ge men chelas e pteri gia.]_--Lib xvi. c. 18. Does not this drawing of a species of Chironectes, captured near Colombo, justify his description?

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHIRONECTES]]

But the most striking to the eye of a stranger are those fishes whose brilliancy of colouring has won for them the wonder even of the listless Singhalese. Some, like the Red Sea Perch (_Helocentrus ruber_, Bennett) and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour; in others purple predominates, as in the _Serra.n.u.s flavo-caeruleus_; in others yellow, as in the _Chaeetodon Brownriggii_[2], and _Acanthurus vittatus_, Bennett[3], and numbers, from the l.u.s.trous green of their scales, have obtained from the natives the appropriate name of _Giraway_, or _parrots_, of which one, the _Sparus Hardwickii_ of Bennett, is called the "Flower Parrot," from its exquisite colouring, being barred with irregular bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green, yellow, and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of black.

[Footnote 1: _Pterois muricata_, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. _Scorpaena miles_, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "_Maha-rata-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. Mr. Bennett has given a drawing of this species, (pl. 9), so well marked by the armature of the head. The French naturalists regard this figure as being only a highly-coloured variety of their species "dont l'eclat est occasionne par la saison de l'amour."

It is found in the Red Sea and Bourbon and Penang. Dr. CANTOR calls it _Pterois miles_, and reports that it preys upon small crustaceae.--_Cat.

Malayan Fishes_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 2: _Glyphisodon Brownriggii_, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; _Chaetodon Brownriggii_, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called _Kaha bartikyha_ by the natives. It is distinct from Chaetodon, in which Mr. 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 sh.o.r.es of the New World (_G. saxatilis_), and it is curious that Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard found this fish at the Cape de Verde Islands in 1827.]

[Footnote 3: 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. The fish raises or depresses this spine at pleasure. It 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 Mr. Bennett, who has figured it in his second plate, it is named _Seweya_. It is scarce on the southern coast of Ceylon.]

_Fresh-water Fishes._--Of the fresh-water fish, which inhabit the rivers and tanks, so very little has. .h.i.therto been known to naturalists[1], that of nineteen drawings sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although specimens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith p.r.o.nounced nearly the whole to be new and undescribed species.

[Footnote 1: 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.]

Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli-ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were carps[1], of which two were _Leucisci_, and one a _Mastacemblus_, to which Col. H. Smith has given the name of its discoverer, _M. Skinneri_[2], one was an _Ophicephalus_, and one a _Polyacanthus_, with no serrae on the gills. Six were from the Kalany-ganga, close to Colombo, of which two were _Helastoma_, in shape approaching the Choetodon; two _Ophicephali_, one a _Silurus_, and one an _Anabas_, but the gills were without denticulation. From the still water of the lake, close to the walls of Colombo, there were two species of _Eleotris_, one _Silurus_ with barbels, and two _Malacopterygians_, which appear to be _Bagri_.

[Footnote 1: Of the fresh-water fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae, there are about eighteen species from Ceylon in the collection of the British Museum.]

[Footnote 2: This fish bears the native name of _Theliya_ in Major Skinner's list; and is described by Colonel Hamilton Smith as being "of the proportions of an eel; beautifully mottled, with eyes and spots of a lighter olive upon a dark green." This so nearly corresponds with a fish of the same name, _Theliya_, which was brought to Gronovius from Ceylon, and proved to be identical with the _Aral_ of the Coromandel coast, that it may be doubtful whether it be not the individual already noted by Cuvier as _Rhyncobdella ocellata_, Cuv. and Val. viii. 445.]

In this collection, brought together without premeditation, the naturalist will be struck by the preponderance of those genera which are adapted by nature to endure a temporary privation of moisture; and this, taken in connection with the vicissitudes affecting the waters they inhabit, exhibits a surprising ill.u.s.tration of the wisdom of the Creator in adapting the organisation of His creatures to the peculiar circ.u.mstances under which they are destined to exist.

So abundant are fish in all parts of the island, that Knox says, not the running streams alone, but the reservoirs and ponds, "nay, every ditch and little plash of water but ankle deep hath fish in it."[1] But many of these reservoirs and tanks are, twice in each year, liable to be evaporated to dryness till the mud of the bottom is converted into dust, and the clay cleft by the heat into gaping apertures. Yet within a very few days after the change of the monsoon, the natives are busily engaged in fis.h.i.+ng in those very spots and in the hollows contiguous to them, although entirely unconnected with any pool or running streams; in the way in which Knox described nearly 200 years ago, with a funnel-shaped basket, open at bottom and top, which, as he says, they "jibb down, and the end sticks in the mud, which often happens upon a fish; which, when they feel beating itself against the sides, they put in their hands and take it out, and reive a ratan through their gills, and so let them drag after them."[2]

[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, Part 1. 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 2: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, Part I. ch. vii.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM KNOX'S CEYLON, A.D. 1681]

This operation may be seen in the lowlands, which are traversed by the high road leading from Colombo to Kandy, the hollows on either side of which, before the change of the monsoon, are covered with dust or stunted gra.s.s; but when flooded by the rains, they are immediately resorted to by the peasants with baskets, constructed precisely as Knox has stated, in which the fish are encircled and taken out by the hand.[1]

[Footnote 1: As anglers, the native Singhalese exhibit little expertness; but for fis.h.i.+ng the rivers, they construct with singular ingenuity fences formed of strong stakes, protected by screens of ratan, which 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FISH CORRAL]]

So singular a phenomenon as the sudden reappearance of full-grown fishes in places which a few days before had been encrusted with hardened clay, has not failed to attract attention; but the European residents have been contented to explain it by hazarding the conjecture, either that the sp.a.w.n had lain imbedded in the dried earth till released by the rains, or that the fish, so unexpectedly discovered, fall from the clouds during the deluge of the monsoon.

As to the latter conjecture; the fall of fish during showers, even were it not so problematical in theory, is too rare an event to account for the punctual appearance of those found in the rice-fields, at stated periods of the year. Both at Galle and Colombo in the south-west monsoon, fish are popularly thought to have fallen from the clouds during violent showers, but those found on the occasions that give rise to this belief, consist of the smallest fry, such as could be caught up by waterspouts, and vortices a.n.a.logous to them, or otherwise blown on sh.o.r.e from the surf; whereas those which suddenly appear in the replenished tanks and in the hollows which they overflow, are mature and well-grown fish.[1] Besides, the latter are found, under the circ.u.mstances I have described, in all parts of the interior, whilst the prodigy of a supposed fall of fish from the sky has been noticed, I apprehend, only in the vicinity of the sea, or of some inland water.

[Footnote 1: 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 mult.i.tude 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.