NOTES ON THE WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 103 



In such a position they can sometimes be caught by dropping a 

 frog, grasshopper, or the like, upon the water close to them ; 

 but this is usually very difficult to do without being seen by the fish, 

 At night they leave their lurking places and cruise for prey 

 near the surface, and then they are often caught with trimmers 

 baited with live fish or frogs, or in favourable places with the rod, 

 using for bait the smallest possible fish, frog, tad-pole, or even 

 fresh raw meat. I once caught over two dozen of a small species 

 with the rod in one evening with the latter bait. The Murrella 

 are said to be monogamou", and, in fact, patterns of domestic 

 virtue until their young come of age, when the parents turn them 

 out to seek their fortune ; and eat the laggards. All of them are 

 good eating when in season, but at other times muddy flavoured. 

 The same is the case with the catfishes, and this is usually accounted 

 for by the difference of waters. My own experience is, however, 

 that these fishes, like salmon, are often good eating even when taken 

 from still and muddy waters, and earthy flavoured in the clearest 

 streams. I have no doubt that it is with them, as with the salmon, 

 a question of season. 



In some rivers considerable numbers of Murrells are shot, as they 

 rise to the surface, with bullets or with barbed arrow?. The 

 arrow-heads are loosely set, but connected with the shaft by a line 

 wound round it. The archer plunges into the water, recovers . the 

 floating arrow-shaft, and hauls in the fish by the line. The mere 

 shock of the bullet on the water will often stun a fish without actual 

 contact. 



The last thing to be said about these interesting fish is that they 

 have the power of lying asleep in the mud of dried-up tanks until 

 the return of the rains, — a power shared by several other fish 

 of this region, especially by a queer-looking creature, called 

 " Wambh" u chaldt^ and " chambdre" (" tanner-fish"), JSolopterus 

 kapirat. 



True eels {Ahir) are not very often caught in the Deccan, 

 partly because they are really not common, but still more because 

 the fishing gear of that country is unsuited for their capture. 

 I only once saw one caught, viz., at Phultamba, on the Grodavery, 

 a famous neighbourhood for fish. My Portuguese cook refused to 

 cook it on the ground that it was " all same like ishnake." There 

 is only one species, Anguilla bengalensis, which grows to at least 

 5 lbs. weight. 



