118 



A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 



swimming-crabs of the genus Matuta, and I have 

 now to introduce a stridulating prawn, which we 

 dredged in 33 fathoms of water off the Ganjam coast. 

 In prawns, as everybody knows, the tail ends in a 

 large five-bladed fan, which, besides being the 

 principal organ for swimming, is also a weapon of 

 defence. The pointed middle lobe of the fan is the 

 terminal segment of the body, and is l^nown as the 

 telson ; the two pairs of broad, lateral blades are the 

 greatly-expanded "legs" of the penultimate segment 

 of the body, and are known as the caudal swimmerets, 

 inner next the telson, and outer farthest from the 

 telson. In our stridulating prawn, the edges of the 

 telson and the inner edge of each inner caudal 

 swimmeret are finely burred like a rasp, so that when 

 they are rubbed upon one another, a soft, thrilling 

 sound, like the subdued note of a grasshopper, results. 

 The prawn repeatedly made this noise, which sounded 

 and felt like the preparations for an explosion, when 

 held in the hand. 



I propose to give in another chapter some account 

 of the fishes found in the great depths of this part of 

 the coast, and to speak here only of a few species, 

 interesting from three different points of view, that 

 live either in shallow water or quite close to the 100- 

 fathom line. 



The first of these is the spangled dragonet 

 {Caliionymus lineolatus) who tells us an eloquent story 



