256 TWO YEARS IX THE JUNGLE. 



(7! iiarnak), and four butter-fisli {Caranx gallus), all of wliicli, ex- 

 cepting the spotted rays, I prepared before I went to bed that 

 night. Lucky it was for me that I knew how to make every stroke 

 count. 



The next day after finishing my three remaining specimens I 

 hastened eagerly to the market to see what fresh conquests were in 

 store for me. Another Bhinobatus five feet long, and a splendid 

 specimen of a most beautiful species of shark, the elegant spotted 

 " tiger-shark," — it should be leopard, — Stegostoma tigrinum* Its 

 ground color is the bright tawny yellow of the tiger, to be sure, but 

 instead of stripes it is dotted all over with jet-black leopard-like 

 spots. Its form is quite as striking as its colors. Instead of the 

 shapeless flabbiuess usually seen in sharks, this one was compactly 

 built, with a very shapely body, having two ridges along the back 

 on each side, and the upper lobe of the tail lengthened for more 

 than two feet. This handsome shark was 6 feet 3 inches in length. 

 In the Colombo market I was one day very much disturbed by find- 

 ing a piece of skin from one of these creatures which had been cut 

 up and sold. Fortunately for me, fish in Jaffna sell for less than 

 one-third of what they fetch in Colombo, and I was able to buy a 

 great deal vvdthout spending much money. The shark cost me only 

 a rupee, and its skin, nicely mounted, may now be seen in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 



At this juncture I was somewhat distracted by the arrival of two 

 boat loads of very fine coral, in which all the species found around 

 Jaffna were well represented. The pale-gi'een madrepores were 

 certainly very beautiful, but the finest specimen was a huge Madre^ 

 pora cytherea. This superb specimen, nearly three feet in diameter, 

 was exceedingly fragile, and I did not succeed in getting it to Roch- 

 ester unbroken. I was told that it arrived in about a thousand 

 pieces, but I think the number must have been exaggerated. But 

 at that time I was especially interested in cartilaginous fishes, and 

 for a few days made little account of corals. 



My next addition was a round thick-bodied ray, studded all over 

 with very sharp spines (Urogymnus asperrimus), fi'om which it de- 

 serves to be known as the spiny ray. After it, came the largest 

 ray of all, 4 feet 3 inches wide, thick-bodied and of a uniform 

 bluish gray color. This was a Trygon sephen, distinguished by hav- 

 ing a large fin on the tail near the end. A little later I secured 



* Called hy the natives, Talei sura, or sea-weed shark. 



