324 FISHES. [Cuar. X 
a notice of their general characteristics forms an in 
teresting appendix to the present chapter.’ 
Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by fa 
is the Seir-fish 2, a species of Scomberoids, which is calle 
Tora-malu by the natives. It is in size and form ver: 
similar to the salmon, to which the flesh of the femal 
fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very clos 
resemblance both in firmness and flavour. 
Mackerel, carp, whitings, mullet both red and striped 
perches and soles are abundant, and a sardine (Sardi 
nella Neohowiti, Val.) frequents the southern and easter 
coast in such profusion that in one instance in 1839 
a gentleman who was present saw upwards of fow 
hundred thousand taken in a haul of the nets in the 
little bay of Goyapanna, east of Point-de-Galle. A 
this vast shoal approached the shore the broken wate: 
became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been floating 
below the surface.’ ; 
‘ Poisonous Fishes. — The sardine has the reputatior 
of being poisonous at certain seasons, and accidents 
ascribed to eating it are recorded in all parts of the 
island. Whole families of fishermen who have partaker 
of it have died. Twelve persons in the jail of Chilaw 
were thus poisoned, about the year 1829; and the 
deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been ascribed to the 
same cause. It is difficult in such instances to say witk 
certainty whether the fish were in fault; whether there 
1 See note B appended to this 
chapter. 
? Cybium (Scomber, Linn.) gut- 
tatum. 
3 These facts serve to explain 
the story told by the friar Oporic 
of Friuli, who visited Ceylon about 
the year 1320 a.p., and says there 
are ‘fishes in those seas that come 
swimming towards the said country 
in such abundance that for a grea 
distance into the sea nothing car 
be seen but the backs of fishes 
which casting themselves on the 
shore, do suffer men for the space 
of three daies to come and to tak« 
as many of them as they please 
and then they return again int< 
the sea.”—Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 57. 
