h 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 scomber, 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 (Scomber, _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
shore 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 themse