Chap. XL] MUSICAL SEA-SOUNDS. 
381 
often heard issuing from the bottom of the lake, at several 
places, both above and below the ferry opposite the old 
Dutch Fort ; and which the natives suppose to proceed 
from some fish peculiar to the locality. The report was 
confirmed in all ; ts particulars, and one of the spots 
whence the sounds proceed was pointed out between the 
pier and a rock that intersects the channel, two or three 
hundred yards to the eastward. They were said to be 
heard at night, and most distinctly when the moon was 
nearest the full, and they were described as resembling 
the faint sweet notes of an iEolian harp. I sent for 
some of the fishermen, who said they were perfectly 
aware of the fact, and that their fathers had always 
known of the existence of the musical sounds, heard, they 
said, at the spot alluded to, but only during the dry 
season, as they cease when the lake is swollen by the 
freshes after the rain. They believed them to proceed 
not from a fish, but from a shell, which is known by the 
Tamil name of (oorie cooleeroo cradoo, or) the " crying 
shell," a name in which the sound seems to have been 
adopted as an echo to the sense. I sent them in search 
of the shell, and they returned bringing me some living 
specimens of different shells, chiefly littorina and ceri- 
thium. 1 
1 Littorina Icevis. Cerithium pa- 
lustre. Of the latter the specimens 
brought to me were dwarfed and 
solid, exhibiting in this particular 
the usual peculiarities that distin- 
guish (1) shells inhabiting a rocky 
locality from (2) their congeners in 
a sandy bottom. Their longitu- 
dinal development was less, with 
greater breadth, and increased 
strength and weight. 
