[Footnote 1:  Cybium (Scomber, Linn.) guttatum.]

Mackerel, dories, carp, whitings, mullet, red and striped, perches and soles, are abundant, and a sardine (Sardinella Neohowii, Val.) frequents the southern and eastern coast in such profusion that on one instance in 1839 a gentleman, who was present, saw upwards of four hundred thousand taken in a haul of the nets in the little bay of Goyapanna, east of Point-de-Galle.  As this vast shoal approached the shore the broken water became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been floating below the surface.[1]

[Footnote 1:  These facts serve to explain the story told by the friar ODORIC of Friule, who visited India about the year 1320 A.D., and says there are “fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said country in such abundance that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be seen but the backs of fishes, which casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to take as many of them as they please, and then they return again into the sea.”—­Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 57.]

Poisonous Fishes.—­The sardine has the reputation of being poisonous at certain seasons, and accidents ascribed to its use are recorded in all parts of the island.  Whole families of fishermen who have partaken of it have died.  Twelve persons in the jail of Chilaw were thus poisoned about the year 1829; and the deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been ascribed to the same cause.  It is difficult in such instances to say with certainty whether the fish were in fault; whether there may not have been a peculiar susceptibility in the condition of the recipients; or whether the mischief may not have been occasioned by the wilful administration of poison, or its accidental occurrence in the brass cooking vessels used by the natives.  The popular belief was, however, deferred to by an order passed by the Governor in Council in February, 1824, which, after reciting that “Whereas it appears by information conveyed to the Government that at three several periods at Trincomalie death has been the consequence to several persons from eating the fish called Sardinia during the months of January and December,” enacts that it shall not be lawful in that district to catch sardines during these months, under pain of fine and imprisonment.  This order is still in force, but the fishing continues notwithstanding.[1]

[Footnote 1:  There are two species of Sardine at Ceylon; the S. neohowii, Val., alluded to above, and the S. leiogaster, Val. and Cuv. xx. 270, which was found by Mr. Reynaud at Trincomalie.  It occurs also off the coast of Java.  Another Ceylon fish of the same group, a Clupea, is known as the “poisonous sprat,” the bonito (Scomber pelamys?), the kangewena, or unicorn fish (Balistes?), and a number of others, are more or less in bad repute from the same imputation.]