tjg'l. en the generation of fifies . 91 



©f Bombay, hue every where on the Malabar coast, 

 ill tiie same mauner. 



Encouraged by this circumstance, I ventured soon 

 afterwards to aik at' a gentleman who had resided ia 

 India for nearly twenty years, in the medical line, if 

 ever he had heard of a fact of this nature. Ke told 

 me it was perfectly true. That in tlie neighbour- 

 hood of Madras, he had often seen the blacks go out, 

 in a day or two after the rains had commenced, to the 

 adjoining fields, now full of pools of water, to catch 

 filh in them, and that they always returned with 

 abundance. That he had often eaten of these fifh, 

 which were very good.' He described them as a 

 fiiort ilat kind of fifh, not of the nature of a flounder, 

 but rather resembling a Jtjhn Dorie, having the thin 

 edges, not the flat side, above and below when swim- 

 ming. SincL then, I have conversed with two. other 

 gentlemen frvom India, who talk of this as of a thing, 

 universally known, though they never had particu- 

 larly investigated, the question. 



These concurring testimonits, though not sufll-- 

 ciently precise to alTord satisfaction, seemed to me 

 sufficient data for instituting an inquiry respecting, 

 this extraordinary pheno'nenon. I suspect there must 

 be some inaccuracy or exaggeration, which, if fully 

 explained, might serve to abate something of the 

 marvellous of this account ; and I own I fhould be > 

 very glad to have the matter so stated as to have pre- 

 cise ideas on the subject. 



Though all the persons above na\ned agreed re- 

 specting the fact of fiih being actually caught in pools; 

 of rain water, in a few days, at the most, after, the.-. 



