94 SPOLIA ZEYLANIOCA. 
and here and there are cylindrical fish-traps (kemina). A place 
called Maguruwaka overlooks the confluence of the Kuda-ganga, 
Pelen-ganga, and Magura-ganga. This is the likeliest looking 
situation for a hatchery and fresh-water biological station that I 
know of in the Western Province. Here there were fishing boats at 
work, netting and angling, whipping the side deeps and catching 
black-blotched, four-barbed petiya (Barbus pinnauratus) and black- 
striped dandiya (Rasbora daniconius). This region is known as 
Molkawa, and the fishery may be conveniently referred to as the 
Molkawa fishery. 
Farther down the Kuda-ganga I came upon a catch of fish made 
by two canoes with pole net (pala-dela), pan-rena (a fish-guide or 
trace of bleached coconut leaves),* and kalavel (poisonous creeper). 
Small carp kept rising in a helpless floundering fashion to the surface, 
whence they were lifted by hand and thrown ashore ; a great 
quantity of frothy scum covered the surface of the water at this 
point. In one of the boats there were two large walaya, 244 and 
254 inches long respectively, with a combined weight of 44 1b. The 
complete outfit for a Kuda-ganga fishing boat consists of a mass 
of bleached coconut leaflets, a net between two stakes, and some 
kalavel. A mile or so farther down the river I picked up a dead 
petiya (Bb. pinnauratus), 8} inches long, weighing + lb., a male in an 
immature condition. 
A lethal weapon sometimes employed along these rivers is the 
“ kaduwa,” consisting of a series of iron barbs riveted to an iron 
shaft. One in use on the Magura-ganga had 19 barbs placed close 
together, so as to form a toothed blade about a foot long; the handle, 
2 feet long, was secured by a rope. The man who held it was 
waiting near some rocks for an “ ara” (Ophiocephalus marulius) to 
appear. If he should succeed in striking a large fish, it might swim 
away with the implement were it not secured by a line after the 
manner of a harpoon. 
A Koraliya Nursery.—As I have indicated above, the native walas 
are merely used as collectors. If anything is to be done for their 
improvement and development, some scheme of protected walas 
will have to be devised so that some of them can serve as nurseries. 
The obvious difficulty, namely, the circumvention of floods, is one 
which can only be met by concerted action based upon local 
knowledge. 
The carp family (Cyprinide), though numerically strong, does 
not figure so prominently in the list of marketable fresh-water fishes 
in Ceylon as it does elsewhere. Of the non-predaceous indigenous 
low-country fishes which are amenable to cultivation, one of the 
most important, numerically and dietetically, is the koraliya 
(Htroplus suratensis), a member of the family Chromides. This 


* For further remarks on pan-rena, reference may be made to my fishery 
observations in Spolia Zeylanica, Vol. V., 1908, page 150. 
