56 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. m. 



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 aperture in the top of the basket he captures him, 

 and deposits him in a basket slung on his back. 



These ' lola ' are delicious eating, being very like 

 an eel in flavour, 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 upon the banks like logs of trees. I have fre- 

 quently remarked that a buffalo, shot within a few 

 yards of the lake, has invariably disappeared during 

 the night, leaving an undoubted track where he has 

 been dragged to the water by the crocodiles These 



