336 
FISHES. , [Chap. X. 
sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although speci- 
mens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith 
pronounced nearly the whole to be new and undescribed 
species. 
Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli- 
ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were 
carps ; two were Leucisci, and one a Mastacembelus 
{M. armatus, Lacep) ; one was an Ophiocephalus, and 
one a Poly acanthus, with no serrse on the gills. Six 
were from the Kalanyganga, close to Colombo, of which 
two were Helostoma, in shape approaching the Chseto- 
don; two Ophiocephali, one a Silurus, and one an 
Anabas, but the gills were without denticulation. 
From the still water of the lake, close to the walls of 
Colombo, there were two species of Eleotris, one Silurus 
with barbels, and. two Malacopterygians, which appear 
to be Bagri. 
The fresh-water Perches of Europe and of the North 
of America are represented in Ceylon and India by se- 
veral genera, which bear to them a great external simi- 
larity (Lates, Therajpon). They have the same habits 
as their European allies, and their flesh is considered 
equally wholesome, but they appear to enter salt-water, 
or at least brackish water, more freely. It is, however, 
them. The burbot and grey mullet 
are occasionally eaten, out they 
taste of mud, and are not in re- 
quest. 
Some years ago the experiment" 
was made, with success, of intro- 
ducing into Mauritius the Osphro- 
menus olfax of Java, which has 
also been taken to French Guiana. 
In both places it is now highly 
esteemed as a fish for table. As it 
belongs to a family which possesses 
the faculty, hereafter alluded to, of 
surviving in the damp soil after 
the subsidence of the water in the 
tanks and rivers, it might with 
equal advantage be acclimated in 
Ceylon. It grows to 20 lbs. weight 
and upwards. 
