FARTHER ELUCIDATIONS RESPECTING THE SUDDEN GENERATION OF FISHES IN INDIA, FROM A CORRESPONDENT AT MADRAS. For the Bee. We were not surprised at reading your paper on the generation of fishes,-we every day hear similar accounts; but when we endeavour to trace them, to their source, vain is the attempt. Like many other stories they have passed current so long as to be believed; and the great quantities of small fish that are found during the monsoon so universally over the face of the country, and on such elevated spots as are never overflowed by rivers or reservoirs of water, seemingly give probability to them; and the appearance of fish of considerable magnitude, two or three inches long, that are caught in streams from high grounds, induce many to believe that they must have fallen from the heavens ; for no fish could have existed there before. That fish are found wherever there is standing or running water, and frequently on very high ground, is most true; but that fish are fourd on the tops of houses, I must have occular demonstration to believe, The instance you mention as occurring at St. Thomas's Mount, was not I believe on the top of a house, but on the high ground there, which equally astonished those that saw it. Mankind are fond of the marvellous, and always improve such stories. I have not paid much attention to this subject, but believe there is nothing wonderful in what we gene rally see. During the monsoon, the torrents of rain are so heavy, that there is a stream of running water over the whole face of the country; the grafs, that then grows luxuriantly, keeps up an inch or more of running water on the highest grounds. From the eagerness with which I have seen fish endeavour to ascend running streams, and from having frequently seen them make their way through wet grafs, I am convinced that all the fish of any magnitude, that appear at the commencement of the rains, come from the sea by the rivers, that are soon filled; for none I believe are correct enough as to time, to say that there was not water running into the sea, by which' they might ascend; and that it is only after having got to the highest grounds that the fish are caught in nets placed at the bottom of the descending streams. The natives believe that these immense quantities of fish are produced from the eggs of fish deposited in the mud; and they assert that they mud of any tank, if put in water, will produce fish. Some mud that has been brought me gives great probability to this opinion; for it is full of eggs. I have forwarded a little to your correspondent in London. They say that these eggs are not destroyed although exposed to the burning rays of the sun for months.* I am trying some just now taken from a tank that has been dry *This is a very curious fact, and deserves to be ascertained with care. The mud is not yet come to hand, but when it does experiments hall be tried with it. In the mean while we are to hope that our correspondents in India will prosecute this subject. Edit above fix weeks. If it succeeds I have no doubt that what I have sent will produce fish; for I hope you will receive it before the period of our monsoon. It is not necef.ary however to suppose that the eggs are exposed to much heat, for as the mud dries, it cracks, and they may be preserved in the fissures: It is possible also, that the fish may bury themselves in the soft mud, when they deposit their eggs; for our fresh water fish can live in little water, and even in mud. The fish that are generally caught in the paddy (rice) fields, are not confined to one species. I have had a list of above twenty given me, that are known to those I spoke to; most of which are fresh water fish.† But this mode of producing fish will not account for their sudden appearance of considerable size at the very commencement of the rains; I must therefore still believe they come from the sea. Fish are frequently carried to tanks and put in wells; as the natives know they are useful in purifying water, by deyouring the filth. a singular fish caught on trees. I was in hopes of sending you along with this, a de scription of a fish, a species of pike, that will lefsen your astonishment at the idea of finding fith in the highest situations, when this is found on the tops of trees. This species of pike has been discovered by a lieutenant Dalderff a very ingenious Dane, and learn ed in all the branches of natural history. This fish, with the afsiftance of two hooks on its breast fins, makes a dart through the stream of water falling from the leaves and running down the trunk of the palmira Oct. 2. borafsus flabelliformis; and there maintaining itself by its hooks, it makes similar darts against the descending stream, in search of insects, till it reaches the top. This is all the information I can give you at present on the subject of fish, I will endeavour soon to ascertain what I have proposed. L A curious species of legerdemain respecting serpents. To fhow you how easily a person my be deceived, Iwill give you an anecdote of my self. Soon after my arrival here, when I was amused by the slight of hand tricks, tumbling, rope dancing &c. in which a particular cast of natives are very expert; these people, who carry about snakes, and pretend to have authority over them, came to me and told me that they would catch, by the power of music, as many snakes as I chose. I was a good deal surprised at what they said, and resolved to put it to the test. One of them went a little way from the house, playing on a pipe and uttering incantations, saying that if the snake would come to him he would treat it well, give it butter milk, and send it to the mountains where it would not be molested; he then pretended to look very attentively at a hole, still continuing to play, and louder; when by and by he saw a snake, and catiously introducing his hand, brought out a large cobra de capella, caliber naga. In this way he caught two or three close by the house. then carried him to different parts of the garden; and he caught so many that I at last thought I had proof positive. Soon after I had brought them to the house, Dr Anderson came home and on hearing what I believed, in consequence, he desired me to I 177 to look at their mouths, when lo all their poisonous fangs had been pulled out, and the little poison that was in their mouths was of a whitish colour and harmless, from the milk diet the snakes had been fed on, instead of that high red colour it is of when in their native state. The fellow then confefsed, when we threatened to kill all his snakes as dangerous, that he had deposited most of them in different parts where he thought it was likely I fhould go. Some wild ones however he caught that were not of a poisonous nature; but that is easily done, for if a snake is seen, by siezing it by the tail with one hand, and running the other close to the head, they can secure the most dangerous with safety. Now the opinion of fish being charmed by music is very ancient, and as much believed as that of fish falling from the heavens. A. B. READING MEMORANDUMS. LET us pay an absolute submission to the will of God, in all the dispensations of his providence, and to all the rules of natural and revealed religion, without endeavouring vainly to discover the reasons of his determinations, or prying into final causes, most of which, to our limited capacity, are inscrutable. It is our business to live virtuously and happily in the world, and not to attempt the discovery of how or when it was formed into its present situation. This is a tree of forbidden knowledge, the search after which has discovered the nakedness of all our philosophers. YOL. xvii. Ꮓ t |
