May 1, 1S70.] 



HARWDICKE'S S CI E N CE- GOSSIP. 



97 





MUSICAL FISHES. 



N Sir Emerson 

 Tennent's "Cey- 

 lon" I find the 

 following notice 

 of the musical 

 sounds heard in 

 Chilka Lake, a 

 salt-water creek 

 Batticaloa, on 

 eastern shores of Cey- 

 — "I distinctly heard 

 sounds in question, 

 came up from the water 

 the gentle thrills of a 

 chord, or the faint 

 ations of a wine-glass 

 when its rim is rubbed by a 

 wet finger. It was not one 

 sustained note, but a multi- 

 tude of tiuy sounds, each clear 

 and distinct in itself; the 

 sweetest treble mingling with the lowest bass. On 

 applying the ear to the wood-work of the boat, the 

 vibration was greatly increased in volume by con- 

 duction. The sounds varied considerably at dif- 

 ferent points, as we moved across the lake, as if the 

 number of the animals from which they proceeded 

 was greatest in particular spots ; and occasionally 

 we rowed out of hearing of them altogether, until, 

 on returning to the original locality, the sounds 

 were at once renewed." Will your readers oblige 

 me by comparing this with the following note I 

 published, of Musical Pishes in a salt-water creek 

 near Bombay, in the Bombay Times of January, 

 1S17?-~"A party, lately crossing from the pro- 

 montory in Salsette, called the : Neat's Tongue,' to 

 near Sewree, were, about sunset, struck by hearing 

 long distinct sounds like the protracted booming of 

 a distant bell, the dying cadence of an /Eolian harp, 

 the note of a pitch-pipe or pitch-fork, or any other 

 long-drawn-out musical note. It was, at first, sup- 

 posed to be music from Parell floating at intervals 

 on the breeze ; then it was perceived to come from 

 No. Go. 



all directions, almost in equal strength, and to arise 

 from the surface of the water all around the vessel. 

 The boatmen at once intimated that the sounds were 

 produced by fish, abounding in the muddy creeks 

 and shoals arouud Bombay and Salsette : they were 

 perfectly well known, and very often heard. Accord- 

 ingly, on inclining the ear towards the surface of 

 the water, or, better still, by placing it close to the 

 planks of the vessel, the notes appeared loud and 

 distinct, and followed each other in constant suc- 

 cession. The boatmen next day produced speci- 

 mens of the fish — a creature closely resembling in 

 size and shape the fresh-water perch of the north 

 of Europe, — and spoke of them as plentiful and 

 perfectly well known. It is hoped they may be 

 procured alive, and the means afforded of deter- 

 mining how the musical sounds are produced and 

 emitted, with other particulars of interest supposed 

 new in Ichthyology. We shall be thankful to re- 

 ceive from our readers any information they can 

 give us in regard to a phenomenon which does not 

 appear to have been heretofore noticed, and which 

 cannot fail to attract the attention of the naturalist. 

 Of the perfect accuracy with which the singular 

 facts above related have been given, no doubt will 

 be entertained when it is mentioned that the writer- 

 was one of a party of five intelligent persons, by 

 all of whom they were most carefully observed, 

 and the impressions of all of whom in regard to 

 them were uniform. It is supposed that the fish 

 are confined to particular localities— shallows, es- 

 tuaries, and muddy creeks, rarely visited by Euro- 

 peans ; and that this is the reason why hitherto no 

 mention, so far as we know, has been made of the 

 peculiarity in any work on Natural History." Now 

 it was nearly impossible for Sir Emerson Teunent 

 to have seen this, as it was altogether impossible 

 for me to have known in 1847 anything about his 

 visit to the Chilka Lake the following year ; and 

 both descriptions, which, so far as the sounds of 

 the fish are concerned, are in perfect harmony, are 

 those of independent observers speaking of the 

 same phenomenon, which I doubt not in both cases 



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