Sharks.—­Sharks appear on all parts of the coast, and instances continually occur of persons being seized by them whilst bathing even in the harbours of Trincomalie and Colombo.  In the Gulf of Manaar they are taken for the sake of their oil, of which they yield such a quantity that “shark’s oil” is now a recognised export.  A trade also exists in drying their fins, and from the gelatine contained in them, they find a ready market in China, to which the skin of the basking shark is also sent;—­it is said to be there converted into shagreen.

Saw Fish.—­The huge saw fish, the Pristis antiquorum[1], infests the eastern coast of the island[2], where it attains a length of from twelve to fifteen feet, including the powerful weapon from which its name is derived.

[Footnote 1:  Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, P. cuspidatus and P. pectinatus.]

[Footnote 2:  ELIAN mentions, amongst the extraordinary marine animals found in the seas around Ceylon, a fish with feet instead of fins; [Greek:  poias ge men chelas e pteri gia.]—­Lib xvi. c. 18.  Does not this drawing of a species of Chironectes, captured near Colombo, justify his description?

[Illustration:  CHIRONECTES]]

But the most striking to the eye of a stranger are those fishes whose brilliancy of colouring has won for them the wonder even of the listless Singhalese.  Some, like the Red Sea Perch (Helocentrus ruber, Bennett) and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour; in others purple predominates, as in the Serranus flavo-caeruleus; in others yellow, as in the Chaeetodon Brownriggii[2], and Acanthurus vittatus, Bennett[3], and numbers, from the lustrous green of their scales, have obtained from the natives the appropriate name of Giraway, or parrots, of which one, the Sparus Hardwickii of Bennett, is called the “Flower Parrot,” from its exquisite colouring, being barred with irregular bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green, yellow, and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of black.

[Footnote 1:  Pterois muricata, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. Scorpaena miles, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, “Maha-rata-gini,” the Great Red Fire, a very brilliant red species spotted with black.  It is very voracious, and is regarded on some parts of the coast as edible, while on others it is rejected.  Mr. Bennett has given a drawing of this species, (pl. 9), so well marked by the armature of the head.  The French naturalists regard this figure as being only a highly-coloured variety of their species “dont l’eclat est occasionne par la saison de l’amour.”  It is found in the Red Sea and Bourbon and Penang.  Dr. CANTOR calls it Pterois miles, and reports that it preys upon small crustaceae.—­Cat.  Malayan Fishes, p. 44.]