the Civil Service, directed his attention to the subject, and
published in 1830 some portions of a projected work on the marine fishes
of the island[1], but it never proceeded beyond the description of
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, Esp. London, 1830.]

[Footnote 2: _Histoire Naturelle des Poissons._]

The fishes of the coast, as far as they have been examined, present few
that are not in all probability 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,
have been submitted to Professor Huxley, and a notice of their general
characteristics forms an interesting appendix to the present chapter.[1]

[Footnote 1: See note B appended to this chapter.]

Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the
Seir-fish[1], a species of Scomberoids, 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, carp, whitings, mullet both red and striped, perches and soles
are abundant, and a sardine (_Sardinella Neohowii_, Val.) frequents the
southern and eastern coast in such profusion that in 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 Friuli, who visited Ceylon 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
shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to take as