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 its 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 eradoo, 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 cm- 

 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. 



