zeidae 0 2
sphyraenidae 5 4
scomberidae 118 62
xiphlidae 0 1
cepolidae 0 5
Heterosomata.
platessoideae 5 22
siluridae 31 24
cyprinidae 19 52
scopelinidae 2 7
salmonidae 0 1
clupeidae 43 22
gadidae 0 2
macruridae 1 0
Apodes.
anguillidae 8 12
muraenidae 8 6
sphagebranchidae 8 10

* * * * *

NOTE (C).

ON THE BORA-CHUNG, OR "GROUND-FISH" OF BHOOTAN.

See P. 353.

In Bhootan, at the south-eastern extremity of the Himalayas, a fish is
found, the scientific name of which is unknown to me, but it is called
by the natives the _Bora-chung_, and by European residents the
"ground-fish of Bhootan." It is described in the _Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal for_ 1839, by a writer (who had seen it alive), as
being about two feet in length, and cylindrical, with a thick body,
somewhat shaped like a pike, but rounder, the nose curved upwards, the
colour olive-green, with orange stripes, and the head speckled with
crimson.[1] This fish, according to the native story, is caught not in
the rivers in whose vicinity it is found, but "in perfectly dry places
in the middle of grassy jungle, sometimes as far as two miles from the
banks." Here, on finding a hole four or five inches in diameter, they
commence to dig, and continue till they come to water; and presently the
_bora-chung_ rises to the surface, sometimes from a depth of nineteen
feet. In these extemporised wells these fishes are found always in
pairs, and I when brought to the surface they glide rapidly over the
ground with a serpentine motion. This account appeared in 1839; but some
years later, Mr. Campbell, the Superintendent of Darjeeling, in a
communication to the same journal[2], divested the story of much of its
exaggeration, by stating, as the result of personal inquiry in Bhootan,
that the _bora-chung_ inhabits the jheels and slow-running streams near
the hills, but lives principally on the banks, into which it penetra