130 



THE AIR BREATHING 



viz., that the fish experimented upon, were possessed of respiratory 

 powers which enabled them to exist in mud so thick that it would 

 be impossible for it to pass through their gills, and that they are 

 capable under such circumstances of breathing atmospheric air, 

 which they obtain by elevating their mouths to the surface. 



For some years, I paid no further attention to the subject; but 

 happening, in a correspondence with Dr. Templeton, to mention the 

 alleged fact of these fish burying themselves in the mud in large 

 numbers, I was requested by him to make further inquiries on the 

 subject, the result of which was, that all the natives of the low 

 country, with whom I communicated on the subject, confirmed the 

 statement; while a friend, whom I requested to make similar in- 

 quiries in the neighbourhood of Badulla, was not able to discover 

 that the natives of that district were acquainted with any such 

 peculiarity of the fish inhabiting their paddy fields. 



I have not, however, been able satisfactorily to verify the state- 

 ment that they are ever found in dry earth, although I have repeat- 

 edly offered a reward to any onp who will let me see the operation 

 of digging fish out of such earth; and the result of a visit which I 

 paid to Moottoo Rajawelle, during the dry weather, when the swamp 

 was in a favourable state for it, in August last, had the effect of 

 making me suspect the truth of the statement, that they are ever 

 so found. The difficulty which I experienced on that, which was 

 my second visit to Moottoo Rajawelle, in procuring any satisfactory 

 information, .affords a curious illustration of the suspicious charac- 

 ter of the Native Singhalese, and of the difficulties which it presents 

 to the satisfactory prosecution of any investigation, the nature and 

 objects of which are not easily made intelligible to them. My 

 former inquiries, which were made more than twelve months before 

 (of which an account is given below), were recollected, and as the 

 inhabitants of the swamp were incapable of conceiving the possibi- 

 lity of my being actuated by purely scientific motives, they came 

 to the conclusion that I had been deputed by Government to inquire 

 into the value of their fishery, with the intention of imposing a tax 

 upon it; and the consequence was, that instead of being allowed 



