9S 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1, 1370. 



admits of the same solution. In 1858, the present 

 Governor of Ceylon visited Cliilka Lake ; he was 

 obviously not aware of what Sir E. Tennent had 

 heard or seen ten years before : his book was not 

 published till 1859. He gives the following account 

 of the music in the water, which is as nearly 

 as possible the same as had been previously given, 

 Mr. Ward being once more a perfectly indepen- 

 dent witness :— " I ought not to take my leave 

 of Batticaloa, which I may not have an oppor- 

 tunity of revisiting, without mentioning the natural 

 phenomenon for which its lake is remarkable — 

 the singing fish. I was too ill during my stay in 

 1857 to expose myself in the night air upon the 

 water ; and I confess that, in spite of the impression 

 then made upon my fellow-travellers, amongst whom 

 were Major-Gen. Lockyer atid Capt. Gosset, I went 

 out upon the present occasion with a considerable 

 amount of incredulity, and was the last to believe 

 the evidence of my own senses ; Dr. Johnston being 

 satisfied as to the existence of a sound apparently 

 proceeding from the water long before I could 

 realize it. But after changing the position of the 

 boat once or twice, there could be no doubt about 

 the matter. The sound rose and swelled, and 

 absolutely vibrated about us in a manner that left 

 no question as to the fact, whatever may be the 

 causes. Its character is indescribable. It is not 

 like any other sound. It is only heard at night. It 

 has nothing harmonious or musical about it. There 

 are no modulations, no variety of notes, except what 

 the increase and decrease in strength produced. 

 As to its origin, nobody knows anything. It may 

 be the fish, to whom it is popularly attributed. It 

 may be the rush of air through rocks partially 

 hollowed. There is nothing but conjecture to guide 

 us in this respect. The results all can vouch for. 

 And these results are certainly most distinct within 

 a limited distance from the shore, though heard 

 occasionally in deep water. I am no naturalist. I 

 can only state what I personally saw and ex- 

 perienced. Others must explain it. Something 

 similar, it is said, occurs in the Bay of Naples. It 

 is strange that between Naples and Batticaloa 

 there should be this one point of resemblance." Sir 

 Emerson Tennent describes the same thing as heard 

 by him at the same place in 1S48 ; but he doubts if 

 the sounds proceeded from fish, and ascribes them 

 to shell-fish. The following is an extract from a 

 letter (Feb. 1849) I received a few weeks after the 

 first notice had been published: — "Musical Fish. — 

 Sir,— In a late number of the Times I noticed some 

 remarks respecting the Musical Fish, as they have 

 been rather aptly termed ; and it may be interesting 

 to the readers of the Times to be informed that the 

 existence of a similar phenomenon has been long 

 known to the residents at Yizagapatam. I have 

 heard the musical sounds, like prolonged notes on 

 a harp, when rowing on the back water at that 



station ; and they were generally supposed to pro- 

 ceed from the fish coming in contact with the sides 

 of the boat. To the best of my recollection, the 

 sounds tvere never heard at a distance from it." — 

 Bombay Times, Feb. 13. 



Vizagapatam, on the Coromandel coast, is four 

 hundred and ninety-eight miles north of Madras, 

 the shores abounding with shallow salt-water creeks 

 like those on the eastern side of Ceylon and all 

 along the Malabar coast. I think that I have very 

 clearly made out that musical fishes do exist in 

 abundance ; and as it is very difficult to conceive in 

 what way the sounds are made under water, it 

 would be well to have the subject more minutely 

 inquired into. — Dr. Buist, in the Athenceum. 



My brother, a midshipman on board H.M.S. 

 Agtncourt, says : " There is a most peculiar fish here 

 (Lisbon), which makes a very loud drumming noise 

 under the ship's bottom in the night ;" but he does 

 not give any particulars. — Hurry C. Leslie, Erit/i. 



In Sir E. Tennent's "Ceylon," vol. ii. p. 4G9, 

 will be found an interesting account of the musical 

 sounds proceeding from the water, which are heard 

 at times near Batticaloa, Ceylon. The fishermen 

 believed them to be produced not by fish, but by 

 mollusca. — A. W. Langclon. 



The correspondence on this subject having been 

 submitted to Dr. Gvinther, our highest authority on 

 these subjects, he has kindly furnished the fol- 

 lowing explanation. 



Explanation. — The musical fish which has been 

 observed by Prof. Kingsley during his visit to the 

 "West Indies, is well known under the name of 

 Pogonias chromis. All writers on North American 

 Ichthyology speak of the "Drum," "Drummer," 

 or " Grunts," and of the peculiar noise produced by 

 it under water. You will find detailed accounts of 

 it in the works of Schoepf, Mitchill, Dekay, and 

 finally also in Cuvier and Valenciennes, vol. v. 

 p. 196. It is a fish like the Maigre, growing to a 

 length of four to five feet, found in American waters, 

 north and south of the line. Other allied species 

 are found in the East Indies, where they have also 

 been observed to astonish the sailor by their music. 

 So much is certain— 1. That the noise is produced 

 by this fish or similar species, which generally go 

 about iu schools or herds. 2. That the sound is not 

 produced by the means of the air-bladder — which is 

 perfectly closed — as some supposed. I believe the 

 sound is produced by the action of the enormous 

 upper and lower pharyngeal teeth, with which three 

 movable plates in the gullet are armed. These 

 teeth have the form of pavement-stones. I am not 

 well enough acquainted with acoustics to say to 

 what distance sound can travel under water ; but I 

 have no doubt that the fish can produce the sound 

 with those teeth. It is not known whether these 

 fishes produce those sounds when feeding; or only 

 at certain seasons of the year.— A. Gunther. 



