1841.] Report on the Island of Chedooba. 367 



Of reptiles, one snake was seen, and a few lizards and insects, the most 

 numerous and beautiful are the butterflies, which were found even on the 

 highest peaks. Bees are plentiful, but the jungles alone supply the 

 honey, which is very sweet and good, and serves throughout the Island 

 in the place of sugar. 



Fish forms a very important part of the diet of the Mug, and mainly 

 in this view, are the villages of Chedooba formed around the shores. It 

 is very plentiful though not of any great variety. The most common is 

 a species of bonetea, a muscular fish of rapid motion, and great strength, 

 though seldom arriving at a weight of 4 lbs. It has a very thick smooth 

 skin, without scale, and is of silvery white, longitudinally spotted with 

 blue. On the western coast in the sandy bays, they are very numerous, 

 and are taken in great plenty with hook and line. 



The bamboo supplies the fishing rod, and in the evening, when most 

 readily taken, the shore may be seen with 20 natives in a line from the 

 nearest village, as close together as they can stand, up to their middles 

 in the water, with their baskets slung on their backs, and casting their 

 lines as rapidly as if fly fishing, laughing and joking at their suc- 

 cess, without the least fear of driving their prey away, though they 

 must be among their legs. The flesh of these fish is very firm and 

 nutritious. 



Very great quantities of a tiny little fish, most similar to, if not in fact, 

 the Anchovy or a small Sardine, are taken on the same coast. They are 

 dried in the sun without any preparation, a day or two's exposure being 

 sufficient for the purpose, and exported in great quantities to Ramree 

 and the neighbouring coast; each family also of the western villages 

 where it is taken keeps a large supply, and demand is extensively made 

 for them by the less fortunate communities eastward, so that they form 

 a valuable adjunct to the resources of that portion of the inhabitants in 

 whose neighbourhood they are common. The method of taking them is 

 perhaps peculiar, and forms an interesting and lively scene. The morn- 

 ing is the time of the best f take,' at which time, and when near high 

 water, young and old assemble on the sand in groups, with flat open 

 mouthed baskets of bamboo work, awaiting the opportunity for a catch. 

 This occurs when the shoals of tiny fish are driven for supposed safety 

 close into the beach by their larger, persecuting, and ravenous brethren. 

 Then away dashes the nearest group of expectants into the water to the 

 back of the surf, which is constantly, though not heavily rolling in on the 

 coast, and driving back the original pursuers, face round in shore and 

 place the flat mouths of their baskets in line together, just outside the 



