Chap. IV.] 



TRAVELLING FISH. 



219 



of fisli without scales, diiTereiit from any known to nihaLit 

 the Nile.i 



In South America the " round-headed hassar " of 

 Guiana, Calliethi/s littoraliK^ and the " yarrow," a species 

 of the faniQy Esocida^, ahhougli they possess no specially 

 modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to bury 

 themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in 

 the pools during the dry season.^ The Loricaria of 

 Surinam, another Sihiridan, exhibits a similar instinct, 

 and resorts to the same expedient. Sir E. Schomburgk, 

 in his account of the fishes of Guiana, confirms this 

 account of the Calhcthys, and says "they can exist in 

 muddy lakes without any water whatever, and great 

 numbers of them are sometimes dug up from such 

 situations." 



In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, 

 and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives in 

 the hot season are accustomed to dig in the mud for 

 fish. Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer of the eastern 



1 This statement will be foitnd 

 in QrATREMERE's Memoires sur 

 VEfiyiitc, torn. i. p. 17, on the au- 

 thority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben 

 Solaim Assouany, in his Hidory of 

 Nubia, " Simon, heritier presomptif 

 du royaume d'^Uouah, m'a assure 

 que Ton trouve, dans la vase qui 

 couvre le fond de eette riviere, 

 un grand poisson sans ecailles, qui 

 ne ressemble eu rien aux poissons 

 du Nil, et que, pour I'avoir, il faut 

 creuser a ime toise et plus de pro- 

 fondeur." To this passage there 

 is appended this note : — " Le pa- 

 triai-che ]\Iendes, cite par Legrand 

 (^Relation Hist. cTAhyssinie, du P. 

 LoBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le 

 fleuve Mareb, apres avoir arrose ime 

 etendue de pays considerable, se 

 perd sous ten-e ; et que quand les 

 Portugais faisaient la gueiTe dans 

 ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le sable, 

 et y trouvoient de la bonne eau et 

 du bon poisson. Au rapport de 

 I'auteur de VAi/in Akhiri/ (torn. ii. 

 p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le'Soubah de 

 Caschmir, pres du lieu nomme Tilah- 



moulah, est ime gi-ande piece de terre 

 qui est inondee pendant la saison des 

 pluies. Lorsque les eaux se sont 

 evaporees, et que la vase est presque 

 seche, les habitans prennent des 

 btitons d'environ une aune de long-, 

 qu'ils enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y 

 trouvent quantite de grands et pet its 

 poissons." In the library of the 

 British Museum there is an imique 

 MS. of Maxoel de Almeida, writ- 

 ten in the sixteenth century, from 

 which Balthasar Tellez compiled his 

 Ilisforia General de Etltiopla alt a, 

 printed at Coimbra in 1()(50, and in 

 it the above statement of Mendes is 

 corroborated by Almeida, who says 

 that he was told by Joao Gabriel,* a 

 Creole Portuguese, born in Abvs- 

 sinia, who had visited the Merab, 

 and who said that the "fish were to 

 be found everyAvhere eight or ten 

 palms doMai, and that he had eaten 

 of them." 



" See Paper ^' on some Species of 

 Fishes and lieptiles in Denurara,'" by 

 .1. IIaxdcock, Esq., ^LD., Zouloyical 

 Journal, vol. iv. p. 243. 



