﻿Ophiocephalus. gangetic fishes. 61 



Although La Cepede {Hist, des Poissons, Tome III. p. 552) 

 would seem to know this genus merely from the writings of Bloch, 

 yet his description of the colours of the wrahl can by no means 

 be reconciled with that given by Bloch (Ichfh. Tome X. p. 117, 

 PI. CCCLIX.) of his 0. striatus, which La Cepede considers as 

 the same with his wrahl. This is a most barbarous name, which, 

 were the two species the same, should, on every account, be 

 rejected for the classical name given by Bloch ; but there is 

 reason to believe that the fishes of the two authors are differ- 

 ent ; for that of Bloch, which I have never seen, has the back 

 of an uniform dusky colour, which, on the sides, is irregularly 

 indented with the white of the belly; while the back and vent 

 fins are obliquely striped, throughout their whole extent, with 

 broad dusky lines. I doubt much of the name wrahl being 

 Malay, as La Cepede states, because the missionary John, by 

 whom this name was transmitted to Europe, so far as I know, 

 tiad no knowledge of the countries where the Malay language 

 prevails ; nor has the word any resemblance to the soft sounds 

 of that tongue. After the word wrahl, or what was read as 

 such, John probably put the letters Mai. intended as a contrac- 

 tion for Malabar, the vulgar name by which the Tamul lan- 

 guage is called by the Europeans in India. His European cor- 

 respondents, not aware of this, have probably considered the 

 letters Mai. as a contraction of Malay. I must, however, con- 

 fess, that, in the dialects of the Tamul, which I heard, as well 

 as in the Bengalese, the fish is called Sola, or Sol; and Wrahl is 

 probably an erroneous reading of what John wrote. 



The wrahl, or sol, is found in the ponds and rivers, both 

 fresh and salt, of every part of India that I have visited, and 

 grows to about two feet in length. Its upper parts are of a 

 brownish-green colour, variegated with irregular black belts. 

 Below the lateral lines, the sides are variegated with dark and 



