Chap. X,] FALL OF FISHES FROM CLOUDS. 341 
by the high road leading from Colombo to Kandy. 
Before the change of the monsoon, the hollows on either 
side of the highway are covered with dust or stunted 
grass ; but when flooded by the rains, they are imme- 
diately resorted to by the peasants with baskets, con- 
structed precisely as Knox has stated, in which the 
fish are entrapped and taken out by the hand. 1 
So singular a phenomenon as the sudden re-appear- 
ance of full-grown fishes in places that a few days before 
had been encrusted with hardened clay, has not failed 
to attract attention ; but the European residents have 
been content to explain it by hazarding conjectures, 
either that the spawn must have lain imbedded in the 
dried earth till released by the rains, or that the fish, 
so unexpectedly discovered, fall from the clouds during 
the deluge of the monsoon. 
As to the latter conjecture ; the fall of fish during 
showers, even were it not so problematical in theory, is 
too rare an event to account for the punctual appear- 
ance of those found in the rice-fields, at stated periods 
of the year. Both at G-alle and Colombo in the south- 
west monsoon, fish are popularly believed to have fallen 
from the clouds during violent showers, but those found 
on the occasions that give rise to this belief, consist of 
the smallest fry, such as could be caught up by water- 
spouts, and vortices analogous to them, or otherwise 
blown on shore from the surf; whereas those which 
1 As anglers, the native Singha- conducted into a series of enclo- 
lese exhibit little expertness ; but sures from which retreat is im- 
for fishing the rivers, they con- practicable. Mr. Layard, in the 
struct with singular ingenuity Magazine of Natural History for 
fences formed of strong stakes, May, 1853, has given a diagram of 
protected by screens of ratan, that one of these fish « corrals," as they 
stretch diagonally across the cur- are called, of which a copy is shown 
rent ; and along these the fish are on the next page. 
Z 3 
