364 
FISHES. 
[Chap. X. 
inches within one hour and a half, being the heaviest fall on 
record. At Poonah, on the 3rd of August, 1852, after a very- 
heavy fall of rain, multitudes of fish were caught on the ground 
in the cantonments, full half a mile from the nearest stream. 
If showers of fish are to be explained on the assumption that 
they are carried up by squalls or violent winds, from rivers or 
spaces of water not far away from where they fall, it would be 
nothing wonderful were they seen to descend from the air 
during the furious squalls which occasionally occur in June." 
NOTE (B.) 
CEYLON FISHES. 
(Memorandum by Professor Huxley.) 
See Page 324. 
The large series of beautifully coloured drawings of the 
fishes of Ceylon, which has been submitted to my inspection, 
possesses an unusual value for several reasons. 
The fishes, it appears, were all captured at Colombo, and 
even had those from other parts of Ceylon been added, the 
geographical area would not have been very extended. Never- 
theless there are more than 600 drawings, and though it is 
possible that some of these represent varieties in dhTerent 
stages of growth of the same species, I have not been able to 
find definite evidence of the fact in any of those groups which 
I have particularly tested. If, however, these drawings repre- 
sent six hundred distinct species of fish, they constitute, so far 
as I know, the largest collection of fish from one locality in 
existence. 
The number of known British fishes may be safely assumed 
to be less than 250, and Mr. Yarrell enumerates only 226, Dr. 
Cantor's valuable work on Malayan fishes enumerates not 
more than 238, while Dr. Eussell has figured only 200 from 
