t, 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.]

_Burying Fishes._--But a still more remarkable power possessed by some
of the Ceylon fishes, is that already alluded to, of secreting
themselves in the earth in the dry season, at the bottom of the
exhausted ponds, and there awaiting the renewal of the water at the
change of the monsoon. The instinct of the crocodile to resort to the
same expedient has been already referred to[1], and in like manner the
fish, when distressed by the evaporation of the tanks, seek relief by
immersing first their heads, and by degrees their whole bodies, in the
mud; sinking to a depth at which they find sufficient moisture to
preserve life in a state of lethargy long after the bed of the tank has
been consolidated by the intense heat of the sun. It is possible, too,
that the cracks which reticulate the surface may admit air to some
extent to sustain their faint respiration.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, p. 285.]

The same thing takes place in other tropical regions, subject to
vicissitudes of drought and moisture. The Protopterus[1], which inhabits
the Gambia (and which though demonstrated by Professor Owen to possess
all the essential organisation of fishes, is nevertheless provided with
true lungs), is accustomed in the dry season, when the river retires
into its channel, to bury itself to the depth of twelve or sixteen
inches in the indurated mud of the banks, and to remain in a state of
torpor till the rising of the stream after the rains enables it to
resume its active habits. At this period the natives of the Gambia, like
those of Ceylon, resort to the river, and secure the fish in
considerable numbers as they flounder in the still shallow water. A
parallel instance occurs, in Abyssinia in relation to the fish of the
Mareb, one of the sources of the Nile, the waters of which are partially
absorbed in traversing the plains of Taka. During the summer its bed is
dry, and in the slime at the depth of more than six feet is found a
species of fish without scales, different from any known to inhabit the
Nile.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Lepid