104 NATURAL HISTORY. 



No prejudice attaches, however, to the spiny eels, called commonly 

 " BhdrrC and " Wambhat," strange-looking fishes with rows of 

 prickles and long " trunk-like" snouts. They are very good eating, 

 but of no importance from a sporting point of view, though I have 

 seen my servants catch them on hooks baited with raw meat. 



Besides the lesser Cyprinidae mentioned above, several fresh- 

 water herrings will take a trout-fly, giving a good deal of amuse- 

 ment in a small way, and these are all good for the table in the form 

 of i( Havildars and twelves." Along with these is sometimes caught 

 the queer-looking fresh- water garfish {Belone candid), called in 

 Mahratti a kutra " or " dog-fish," probably from its greediness, or 

 from its long well-armed jaws. It is exactly like the garfish of 

 European seas, living mostly close to the surface, and very fond 

 of skipping over any floating stick or straw. In our present province 

 both game and meat are often very scarce, and after many days' 

 diet of tough mutton and tougher " moorghies " in a bad climate, 

 a very moderate dish of eatable fish is a welcome luxury. 



Setting aside nets and traps, it may be said that the main points 

 for the angler to remember in such waters as I have been describing 

 are to use a trout-rod for small fish, a salmon-rod for the large ones, 

 the finest line he dares, and the smallest hooks on the strongest gut 

 that he can get. Even in spinning he should never use treble 

 hooks, because almost all the fish he looks out for, except some 

 catfishes, have small mouths ; and the mahseers, though they have 

 no teeth in their mouths at all, have such power of jaw that they can 

 break anything that offers resistance, as a treble hook does. If 

 further information is required, the best of it is to be got in 

 Lieutenant Beavan's " Freshwater Fishes of India ' and Mr. 

 Thomas's " Rod in India." 



I repent that I have omitted to notice one handsome genus of 

 carps, the Cirrhinas, which are very good eating, and would pro- 

 bably, if one could get them to take either a fly or bait, give better 

 sport than any other Indian fish, as they have certainly no equals 

 in grace of form and motion. 



Although the fishes have claimed precedence in remarks upon 

 their own element, their possession of it is disputed by many other 

 creatures. In our present province, excluding man, only one of 

 these is a mammal, viz., the Otter (Lulra nair), called in Mahratti 

 " 03," li Lad" and " Pdn-Manjar," (i.e., " Watercat"). I once heard 

 a Kashmiri Pandit call one u Lucira,'' which comes close as can be 



