THE PIKE FAMILY. 227 



covered with scales^ and being famished with strong teeth 

 or spines under the gill-cover. Aided by this apparatus, 

 says Sir Emerson Tennent, "this little creature issues 

 boldly from its native pools and addresses itself to its 

 toilsome inarch, generally at night, or in the early morning 

 whilst the grass is still wet with dew; but in its distress 

 it is sometimes compelled to travel by day, and Mr. E. L. 

 Layard on one occasion encountered a number of them 

 travelling along a hot and dusty road under the mid- day 

 sun." 



Mr. Morris, the Government Agent of Trincomalee, 

 writing of these fish, says : — " I was lately on duty in- 

 specting the bund of a large tank at Nade-cadua, which, 

 being out of repair, the remaining water was confined in 

 a smaU hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst there, 

 heavy rain came on, and, as we stood on the high ground, 

 we observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool 

 gorging himself; our people went towards him and raised 

 a cry of 'fish ! fish [' We hurried over, and found numbers 

 of fish struggling upwards through the grass, in the rills 

 formed by the trickling of the rain. There was scarcely 

 water enough to cover them; nevertheless they made 

 rapid progress up the bank, on which our followers col- 

 lected about two bushels of them, at a distance of 40 yards 

 from the pool. They were forcing their way up the knoll, 

 and, had they not been intercepted, first by the pelican, 

 and afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes 

 have gained the highest point, and descended on the other 



