100 NATURAL HISTORY. 



south of India, where also this fish flourishes, get the benefit of two 

 monsoons ; and in both cases the upper streamlets rim from lofty 

 mountains through, at first, uninhabited jungles of great extent, 

 where spawning fish and descending fry are pretty secure from 

 their worst enemy — man. 



The streams of the Deccan, on the other hand, are full for only 

 three or four months, and even at that season the sources of almost 

 every one of them, as far as the barbels are concerned, are, and 

 have been for many generations, in rice-fields, out of which few 

 spawning fish, and not many of their fry, escape alive. All the 

 circumstances are against large fish like Barbus tor, with a taste for 

 high spawning grounds, and in favour of species moi'e moderate in 

 size and aspiration, though otherwise of very similar appearance and 

 habits. These are generally known to the natives as u Kawli MascC 

 or " scaly-fish" from their large scales. If I remember right, the 

 allied Burbot has a similar local name on the Rhine. Dr. Fairbank 

 eives " Mhasala" or " Buffalo-fish" as a Mahratta name for Barbus 

 lor, and mentions one as 3^ feet long, one foot high (!), and weighing 

 42 lbs., much the largest I ever heard of in these waters. As 

 regards the value of the whole group for the table, all I can say is 

 that I never tasted a Mahseer of any one else's killing that was worth 

 putting a fork to. What I kill myself are (of course) good fish all 

 round. They will all sometimes rise at a fly or a spinning 1 ait (dead 

 or artificial), but live bait is certainly the most killing. The name of 

 " Indian salmon" is an absurd misnomer for these or any other 

 Indian fishes ; a Mahseer no more resembles a salmon than a Buc- 

 caneer might an English naval officer. 



Next after the Mahseers come the Labeos, or Rahu or Roho fish, 

 named by Hindu fancy after the mythical dragon who causes eclipses 

 by swallowing the sun. The type of the genus, perhaps, is Labeo 

 Rohita, the " Roho fish" proper, called in Mahratta " tambacla 

 masa" or " copper fish." The name "Roho" is as much knocked 

 about as that of Mahseer. These Labeos are easily distinguished at 

 the first glance from the Indian barbels by their longer form and very 

 peculiar mouth, set under the snout, and furnished with thick warty 

 lips, convenient for grazing from above on water weeds, which, with 

 perhaps some insects and snails, form " the chief of their diet." 

 They like still and muddy water ; in this resembling the European 

 carp ; and I should certainly have called them " Indian carp" in 

 this paper if Mr. Thomas had not most unfortunately appropriated 



