1681]

This operation may be seen in the lowlands, traversed by the high road
leading from Colombo to Kandy. Before the change of the monsoon, the
hollows on either side of the highway 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 entrapped 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,
that 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, of which a copy is shown on the next page.]

So singular a phenomenon as the sudden re-appearance of full-grown
fishes in places that a few days before had been encrusted with hardened
clay, has not failed to attract attention; but the European residents
have been content to explain it by hazarding conjectures, either that
the spawn must have 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 believed 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 them, or otherwise blown on
shore 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
circumstances 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