ZOOLOGY. [PART II. 



NOTE (A.) 



INSTANCES OF FISHES FALLING FEOM THE CLOUDS IN INDIA. 

 From the Bombay Times, 1856. 



Dr. Buist, after enumerating cases in which fishes were said 

 to have been thrown out from volcanoes in South America and 

 precipitated from clouds in various parts of the world, adduces 

 the following instances of similar occurrences in India. " In 

 1824," he says, " fishes fell at Meerut, on the men of Her Ma- 

 jesty's 14th Regiment, then out at drill, and were caught in 

 numbers. In July, 1826, live fish were seen to fall on the 

 grass at Moradabad during a storm. They were the common 

 cyprinus, so prevalent in our Indian waters. On the 19th of 

 February, 1830, at noon, a heavy fall of fish occurred at the 

 Nokulhatty factory, in the Daccah zillah ; depositions on the 

 subject were obtained from nine different parties. The fish 

 were all dead ; most of them were large : some were fresh, others 

 were rotten and mutilated. They were seen at first in the sky, 

 like a flock of birds, descending rapidly to the ground ; there 

 was rain drizzling, but no storm. On the 16th and 17th of 

 May, 1833, a fall of fish occurred in the zillah of Futtehpoor, 

 about three miles north of the Jumna, after a violent storm of 

 wind and rain. The fish were from a pound and a half to three 

 pounds in weight, and of the same species as those found in the 

 tanks in the neighbourhood. They were all dead and dry. A 

 fall of fish occurred at Allahabad, during a storm in May, 1835 ; 

 they were of the chowla species, and were found dead and dry 

 after the storm had passed over the district. On the 20th of 

 September, 1839, after a smart shower of rain, a quantity of 

 live fish, about three inches in length and all of the same kind, 

 fell at the Sunderbunds, about twenty miles south of Calcutta. 

 On this occasion it was remarked that the fish did not fall here 

 and there irregularly over the ground, but in a continuous 

 straight line, not more than a span in breadth. The vast mul- 

 titudes of fish, with which the low grounds round Bombay are 

 covered, about a week or ten days after the first burst of the 

 monsoon, appear to be derived from the adjoining pools or 

 rivulets, and not to descend from the sky. They are not, so 

 far as I know, found in the higher parts of the island. I have 

 never seen them, (though I have watched carefully,) in casks 



