FRESH-WATER FISHERIES OF CEYLON. 9] 
waters. The boatmen offered to put up a fence across the creek 
opposite to the resthouse at midnight ; then they would place a 
buffalo at some distance away towards the head of the creek, to 
trample up the mud, thus causing the fish to collect at the fence in 
their efforts to escape from the source of disturbance, where they 
could be taken in the early morning in baskets. I decided, rightly 
or wrongly, against it. 
It should be added that, besides the species which I have men- 
tioned above, several other first-rate food-fishes are habitually 
caught by the Barawe fishermen, e.g., river-eels, ganga-anda 
(Anguilla bengalensis), the butter-fish, walapota (Callichrous bima- 
culatus), the eight-barbed three-spined catfishes, ankutta (several 
species of Macrones), the fresh-water gobies, weligowa (Gobius giuris) 
and kudupuwa (Eleotris fusca), the fresh-water garfish, moralla 
(Belone cancila), the climbing perch, kavaiya (Anabas scandens), 
and the koraliya (Htroplus suratensis). These are retained for 
home consumption and for sale in the roadside market at Hanwella 
opposite to the resthouse, although the neighbouring planters derive 
their fish supply from Colombo through the Kelani Valley Railway. 
When. there is a superabundance, some of the larger fishes may be 
salted and kept for a few days. 
The ‘ Wala” Fishery.—The floods of this country are a principal 
factor in the inland fisheries, exercising as they do a beneficent, 
protecting, and distributing influence. They afford natural close 
seasons for river fishes; and they enable mud-loving and _ air- 
breathing fishes to spread themselves over the surrounding lowlands. 
A wala is a pit or depression in the ground in which flood water will 
remain for a long time after the inundation which filled it has 
subsided. They vary in extent from a few square yards to about 
a quarter of an acre; the esteem in which they are held can be 
gauged from the fact that each wala has its own distinctive name ; 
the fishing of them requires co-operation, and the fishing rights are 
therefore vested in a body of related families, the time of fishing 
being decided by the able-bodied men. It would be possible to 
register the recognized fishing walas of a district, but it has not 
occurred to anybody to do so; such a return would be useful, and 
might be advantageously ordered by Government. 
As an example of primitive pond-culture the wala fishery is both 
interesting and important, and should on no account be stigmatized 
as “ puddling,” or mentioned disparagingly as one of those methods 
which “ ought to be stopped.” On the contrary, it is the beginning 
of systematic pisciculture, and is, or should be, capable of further 
development. 
The pits are left to be watered and stocked by floods, there being 
little attempt to assist nature, except by slight excavation and 
banking. At the proper time the water is baled out by means of 
winnowing baskets (“‘ hal-kula’’), or by large, wooden, irrigating 
