644 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [March i, 1888. 
effect as on the fresh water modd and dala on which 
we have tried it, and that is it will blind them in a few 
weeks. 
Since the above was written and the extracts 
made, we have seen the letter to a contemporary 
above initials which indicate a gentleman long 
resident on the banks of the Mahaweliganga in the 
vale of Dumbara. Here is his account of a fish 
which he thought resembled pictures he had seen 
of the mahseer, but which he now knows to be 
that fish : — 
Sinhalese — Cooriah, Layl Cooriah, Laylah. Up to 
5 or 6 lb. this fish is called Cooriah ; after that 
it is called Layl Cooriah, abbreviated to Laylah ; on 
the principle, I suppose, that the Grilse after a cer- 
tain weight becomes a Salmon. A very handsome 
fish with large scales, much more gracefully shaped 
than the chubby Pettiah ; in fact, he exactly resem- 
bles a picture I have seen of the Mahseer. I have 
never noticed teeth, but am told by the natives that 
he possesses them. Caught by the natives in deep 
pools, with varied baits of worms, jak fruit, rice paste, 
coconut poonac. Of its table qualities I cannot speak, 
for, as I know that at certaiu seasons it feeds on a 
poisonous nut that falls into the water, I have al- 
ways declined to experimentalize. I think ' K. V.' 
may remember how, at a Dumbara elephant kraal 
many years ago, nearly the whole camp were turned 
inside out, and the midnight alarm of cholera we 
had, owing to eating this fish. Is an exceedingly 
game fish; when hooked runs lightly with a dash 
straight out into the strongest stream, acd never 
gives in until he cannot help it, though he weakens 
his chances by always going up stream. Said to grow 
to 30 lb, but this is I fancy a mere guess. Largest I 
have caught 4§ lb, but I have weighed one fairly caught 
with reel and line 23| lb. I did not see the catch, 
but was told he took out 100 yards of line, and flung 
himself clean out of the water three times. 
Whether this fish is the Masheer or not I don't 
know, but I have never risen one to my knowledge 
with the fly, nor have I ever had a run trolling from 
any fish in the Mahavelliganga, though I have tried 
Phantoms, Spoon bait, Hoarder's winnows,* and every 
other kind I could lay my hands on in every likely 
place. 
The fact is, paddy cultivation spoils the river for 
fishing, and one has not much chance when, for eleven 
months in the year, it is thick with mud, and as 
soon as it is too dry for paddy cultivation, and the 
water becomes clear and low, fish kraals, netting, and 
dynamiting begin ; so that it is small wonder that the 
unfortunate fish, harassed as they are, will not take a 
bait. The only wonder to me is that enough remain 
to propagate their species. 
Just as I am sending this off I have seen Mr. Haly" 
letter. There is no doubt that he means the same 
fish that I have called Cooriah and Laylah. 
As accounting for the multitudinous species which 
Mr. Haly mentions as having been formed out of 
this fish, it will be observed that the Sinhalese 
give it different names at different stages of its 
life, a very common source of errors which care- 
ful naturalists have to eliminate. \ Instead of Mr. 
Pereira's noxious tree-blossom, this writer mentions 
" a poisonous nut " on which he says he knows that 
at oertain seasons the fish feeds.} He has, therefore, 
T* Minnows?— Ed. 
f Mr. Thomas, in writing of Barbus neili, states: — 
" There are many different fish that pass as mahseer 
I have seen at least three in a single river." 
1 A correspondent of a contemporary writes that 
" the best bait is said to be the berry of the ' rnakula,' 
but, if that is used, the fish must not be eaten, as the 
berry is poisonous. The Sinhalese also ground-bait 
a pool for two or three days and then bait with a 
piece of sweet potato." Makulu is the Sinhalese name 
of Ilydnocarpus venenata, which is also known by 
the significant name of //. inebrians. Another corre- 
Hpondent writes : — "One of the best baits for them is a 
little jungle fruit which the Sinhalese pronounce 
'l>oi tci\' They parboil it, to give it the necessary 
never eaten it, and he alludes to sickness of a choler- 
aic type brought on by eating freshwater fish at 
an elephant kraal in Dumbara. The species of fish 
eaten on that occasion is not mentioned, and it is 
just possible that the case, if we knew all the circum- 
stances, might support our theory of decomposition 
before the fish was dressed. In any case the question 
of this the largest of our fishes being at certain sea- 
sons or after eating certain food poisonous is worthy 
of the most careful investigation. So is the 
statement that mud from rice fields is inimical to 
fish life in our rivers. We should have thought, 
on the contrary that the effect would be beneficial 
in supplying the fish with food in the shape of 
earthworms, &c. We are reminded of a very " in- 
teresting" statement made to us by an observant 
Highland gentleman with whom we travelled many 
years ago on the Caledonian Canal. He told us, 
in answer to our inquiries as to scarcity or absence 
of fish in rivers which once swarmed with salmon, 
that since the supersession of cattle by sheep in 
consistency, and then it ia a deadly bait for ' Bettia ' or 
Leila." We are unable to identify the plant thus refer- 
red to (potd-wel not being described as having poisonous 
fruits), but a good many of our Ceylon trees seem 
to bear poisonous or intoxicating fruits and blossoms. 
The same correspondent confirms our impression 
that the mahseer in Ceylon is not the energetic giant 
he becomes in the mountain streams of India. He 
writes : — " If the Leila is really the mahseer, I am 
surprised and- -I own, disappointed, for I have always, 
from what I have read of the mahseer, and from 
the elaborate tackle which I have seen in Farlow's 
shop intended for his destruction, held a much higher 
respect for him than I can get up for the common- 
place Leila. Like ' B. J.' I have tried all sorts of 
spinning baits and flies for Lelloo without success, 
and I firmly believe that a chunk of coconut, plan- 
tain, or the ' porter ' fruit above alluded to, will 
be found more effective than all the mahseer tackle 
to be found in Farlow's." We should think that a 
clue to^the "porter" fruit may be found in the fact, that, 
in the language of theKols of India, Randia dumetorum 
" the fruit of which is used to poison fish," is called 
portoho. R. gardneri is indigenous to Ceylon, and perhaps 
its fruits have the same property ? Strychnos potatorum, 
the ingini of the Sinhalese, is the " clearing nut tree " 
of the EDgliah. Its fruit can scarcely be poisonous, 
for the pulp is eaten, while the nuts clear muddy 
water. Coculus Indicus seems to be the substance 
chiefly used in India and Ceylon for stupefying fish so 
as to cause them to come to the surface. Of this nut 
Ainslie, in his "Indian Materia Madica," states: — 
Kakacollie verei (Tarn.) Kakichempoo vittiloo (Tel.) 
Kakamari (Sans.) Kakmari ke beenge (Duk.) Cocculus 
Indicus. 
Menispermum Cocculus (Lin.). 
CI. and Ord. Dioscia Dodecandria. Nat. Ord. Sar- 
mentacese. Fischetodtender Mondsanie (Nom. Triv. 
Willd.). 
The name cocoulus Indicus is, in all probability, taken 
from the Tamool appellation of the article, which 
signifies the " crow-killing seed." The plant is the 
tuba bidji of the Malays, and the natsjatam of the 
Eort. Malah. 
This narcotic berry, which grows in abundance in 
the woods of the Southern provinces, in the Travan- 
core country, and in Ceylon, is employed by the Yytians 
as a useful external application in cases of inveterate 
itch and herpes ; on such occasions, it is beat into a 
fine powder, and mixed with a little warm castor-oil. 
It is also formed into a sort of paste, with moistened 
rice, for intoxicating birds and fish, in order to catch 
them. 
Our present article is the tuba baccifera of Eumphius. 
Orphila places the fruit of it amongst his Poisons ; 
and, in his work, tells us, that Monsieur Gmqril has 
given to the Society of Medicine of Paris some interest- 
ing facts, proving that it is not only a poison for fish, 
but for other animals ; he supposes it to act like cam- 
phor. Nay, Marcet informs us, that it is a poison for 
even vegetable substances themselves. 
