286 MUSICAL FISHES. 



from fluid in ebullition. The sailors began to fear there 

 was some leak in the vessel. It was heard unceasingly in 

 all parts of the vessel, and finally, about nine o'clock, it 

 ceased altogether. 



It would form a curious matter of research to ascertain 

 by what organs these sounds are produced at so great a depth, 

 and without communication with the exterior air. The 

 illustrious naturalist further remarks that such of the Scicen- 

 idee (the Maigre family) as are the most remarkable for the 

 faculty in question, having the swimming-bladder very large 

 and thick, furnished with extremely strong muscles, and are, 

 in several species, provided with more or less complicated 

 prolongations, which penetrate between the intervals of the 

 ribs. But what renders the phenomenon more unaccounta- 

 ble is that these swimming-bladders have no communication 

 with the intestinal canal, nor, in general, with any part of 

 the exterior. 



The interpreter belonging to Lieutenant White's ship 

 stated that the marine music which had so much surprised 

 the crew was produced by fishes of a flattened oval form, 

 and which possess the faculty of adhering to various bodies 

 by their mouths. This fish might have been the Pogonia, 

 Avhich produces much more sound than any of the other 

 Maigre tribe to which it belongs, on which account it is 

 sometimes called the " drum-fish." Schoeff reports of them 

 that they will assemble round the keel of a vessel at anchor, 

 and serenade the crew. Some of the species attain a large 

 size — one hundred pounds or more — and are excellent for 

 the table. 



Sir James Emerson Tennant, in his account of Ceylon, 

 states: " In the evening, when the moon had risen, I took a 

 boat and accompanied the fishermen to the spot where mu- 

 sical sounds were said to be heard issuing from the bottom 

 of a lake, and which the natives supposed to proceed from 

 some fish peculiar to the locality. I distinctly heard the 



