58 The Rifle and Hoiind in Ceylon. 



eaten if better food can be obtained. The tongues are 

 very rich, but require salting. 



In those days Minneria was not spoiled by visitors, 

 and supplies were accordingly at a cheap rate large 

 fowls at one penny each, milk at any price that you 

 chose to give for it. This is now much changed, and 

 the only thing that is still ridiculously cheap is^ fish. 



Give a man sixpence to catch you as many as he can 

 in the morning, and he forthwith starts on his pisca- 

 torial errand with a large basket, cone shaped, of two 

 feet diameter at the bottom and about eight inches at 

 the top. This basket is open at both ends and is about 

 two feet in length. 



The fish that is most sought after is the " lola." He 

 is a ravenous fellow, in appearance between a trout and 

 a carp, having the habits of the former, but the clumsy 

 shoulders of the latter. He averages about three 

 pounds, although he is often caught of nine or ten 

 pounds weight. Delighting in the shallows, he lies 

 among the weeds at the bottom, to which he always 

 retreats when disturbed. Aware of his habits, the 

 fisherman walks knee deep in the water, and at every 

 step he plunges the broad end of the basket quickly to 

 the bottom. He immediately feels the fish strike against 

 the sides, and putting his hand down through the aper- 

 ture in the top of the basket he captures him and de- 

 posits him in a basket slung on his back. 



These " lola" are delicious eating, being very like an 

 eel in flavor, and I have known one man catch forty in 

 a morning with no other apparatus than this basket. 



Minneria Lake, like all others in Ceylon, swarms 

 with crocodiles of a very large size. Early in the 

 morning and late in the evening they may be seen lying 



