CHAP. IV.] 



TRAVELLING FISH. 



219 



of fish without scales, different from any known to inhabit 

 the Nile. 1 



In South America the " round-headed hassar " of 

 Guiana, Callicthys littoralis, and the " yarrow," a species 

 of the family Esocidse, although 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. 2 The Loricaria of 

 Surinam, anotHer Siluridan, 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 Callicthys, 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 found 

 in QUATREMERE'S Memoires" sur 



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

 thority of Abdullah ben Ahmed ben 

 Solairn Assouany, in his History of 

 Nubia, " Simon, heritier presomptif 

 du royaume d'Alouah, m'a assure 

 que 1'on trouve, dans la vase qui 

 couvre le fond de cette riviere, 

 un grand poisson sans ecailles, qui 

 ne ressemble en rien aux poissons 

 du Nil, et que, pour 1'avoir, il faut 

 creuser a une toise et plus de pro- 

 fondeur." To this passage there 

 is appended this note : " Le pa- 

 triarc-lie Mendes, cite par Legrand 

 (Station Hist. <TAbt/ssime, du P. 

 LOBO, p. 212-3) rapporte que le 

 fleuve Mareb, apres avoir arrose" une 

 etendue de pays considerable, se 

 perd sous terre ; et que quand les 

 Portugais faisaient la guerre dans 

 -ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le sable, 

 et y "trouvoient de la bonne eau et 

 du bon poisson. Au rapport de 

 1'auteur de FAyin Akben/ (torn. ii. 

 p. 140, ed. 1800), dans le'Soubah de 

 Caschmir, pres du lieu nomme" Tilah- 



moulah, est une grande 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 

 batons d'environ une aune de long, 

 qu'ils enfoncent dans la vase, et ils y 

 trouvent quantite" de grands et petits 

 poissons." In the library of the 

 British Museum there is an unique 

 MS. of MANGEL DE ALMEIDA, writ- 

 ten in the sixteenth century, from 

 which Balthasar Tellez compiled his 

 Historia General de Ethiopia alta, 

 printed at Coimbra in 1660, 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 Abys- 

 sinia, who had visited the Merab, 

 and who said that the "fish were to 

 be found everywhere eight or ten 

 palms down, and that he had eaten 

 of them." 



8 See Paper "on some Species of 

 Fishes and Reptiles in Demcrara," by 

 J. IlANDCOCK, Esq., M.D., Zoological 

 Journal, vol. iv. p. 243. 



