. 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.]

[Illustration: 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 grass; 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 fishing 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.

[Illustration: 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 spawn 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 analogous to