NOTES ON THE WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 101 



the title to an omnivorous fighting barbel closely allied to the Mahseer 

 and actually called Mahseer by Europeans in our province. Factum 

 valet quod fieri non debuit, the Rohos must go without an English 

 name. Iu net-fishing throughout our province they are usually the 

 largest fish in the net, but are very apt to escape by jumping over 

 it in fine style. 1 have more than once seen one knock a man down 

 and go off over his prostrate body, and have got good sport by 

 wading behind the net with a spear and striking them in the air. 

 The best baits for them are paste, earth-nuts and gram. Worms 

 are so scarce in this country that one can hardly count them among 

 available bait, but when you can get them, hardly any Indian fish 

 will refuse them. If any gentleman despises bottom fishing, let him 

 try for a Roho with fine tackle (coarse tackle is of no use), and if he 

 hooks one, he will find the play much more like that of a salmon than 

 a Mahseer's ; and the fish, moreover, very much better for the 

 table. With a little trouble they can be kept alive for a good 

 while, and even when dead do not quickly become stale.* 



After the Mahseers and Rohos there are no Cyprinidoe of any 

 account either for sport or for the table, though several small sorts, 

 such as Chela, Rasbora, and Barilius, can be taken with a midge-fiy 

 or small bait and trout rod, and fried in rows upon a bamboo 

 splinter, after the fashion known to mofussil house-keepers as 

 " Havildars and twelves." If small enough, they can then be eaten 

 bones and all, and are no bad variety in the monotonous bill of fare 

 of a camp. 



The next family, the Siluridce or catfishes, though not so 

 numerous in individuals, are quite as often " in evidence," as 

 several of them are much better eating than any Indian Cyprinoid. 

 They are all scaleless, and most of them have a " dead fin ' : behind 

 the great back fin like a salmon or trout, The commonest and 

 best for the table is the (i Padi" or " Shiioara masa " ( Wallaqo 

 attu), the JBoalli of Upper India. Dr. Fairbank gives " Padi " as a 

 name for Silundia Sykesi, another catfish, much handsomer, and 

 possessing a dead fin, for which Sykes himself gives " Pari ' and 

 ''■ Sillun" Wallago attu grows to a great size, bites well, and 

 shows good fight. On one occasion I had played one almost within 

 reach of the landing net, when a second of about equal size rushed 



* Note. — Shah Jahan or his father, I forget which, gave a horse and a village 

 to a lucky angler who brought him a fine " Rahu machi." The story is in Elliot : 



auctore Iinperatore ipso. 



