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FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS, 



Thk Bahmin. 

 By Fred. Ord. G-adsden. 

 Out here in Indian waters — and by Indian waters I must always (^except 

 when otherwise distinctly stated) be understood to be referring to salt waters — 

 there is one fish that stands pre-sminently forward as a real good sporting 

 fish. I refer to the Bahmin (^Polymmus tftradactyhis), and yet, though there 

 are many men out here who call themselves fishermen, hardly one in a 

 thousand has ever heard of him. Thomas in that most delightful bciok of 

 his " The Rod in India" speaks very highly of him, and regrets that 

 personally he knew so little of him. One of Thomas's correspondents 

 remarks sorrowfully that " Bahmin eat a surprising amount of tackle." This 

 is exactly what they will do if allowed. 



And now for the fish himself. To begin with, his appearance is magnifi- 

 cent ; a large-scaled game-looking fish, he strikes one as being something of a 

 cross between a salmon and an English sea-bass ; more handsome than the 

 latter, without being quite so aristocratic-looking as the former. 



Other fish have been given the high-sounding title of the Indian salmon ; 

 ujs., mahseer, seer-fish, and even the nairor "Cock-up,'' I have heard so 

 called ; but in my opinion, if there be an Indian salmon, it is the Bahmin, 

 Beautiful silvery scales, large strong wide-spread tail, powerful dorsal and 

 pectoral fins, with a most marvellously lovely sheen of flesh pink, silver and 

 olive-green tints in his scales ; he is, in fact, when just landed, " a sight and 

 a perfect picture for sore eyes," 



He lives in the sea, but seems to be very fond of running up the estuaries 

 partly for his food-supply and partly, I fancy, because like his prototype the 

 Salmo salar, he cannot do without just a taste of fresh or rather brackish 

 water. He is found all up and down the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. 

 Thomas refers in his book to several places, such as the backwaters at 

 Caunanore, Calicut, Mahi, and Tellichcrry and elsewhere ; and I have found 

 them, besides at these places, at Paumben, the backwaters off Negapatam, 

 Masulipatam, in nearly all the Bur man estuaries and notably in Akyab, 

 Good as most of these places are, not one of them, to use a common 

 expression, can hold a candle to Bombay Harbour, 



All who know the latter place will know that numberless creeks 

 and small rivers empty themselves into the upper waters of this 

 magnificent harbour, and that these creeks are full of shrimps, prawns and 

 fry of several sorts of estuary fish. On these our friend feeds, and daily he 

 takes a run in on the flood tide and levies toll. It is a little diflicult for the 

 average man to get away from business and it is a long sail or pull to get 

 to these creeks, and if it were not that there exists one spot in the entrance 

 to Bombay Harbour where these fish seem daily to collect, one might never 

 get a chance at them at all. But an all-wise and merciful Providence has or- 



