b' Introductory. Chait. i. 



If sportsmen think that the above imitation has resulted in 

 any advantage to themselves, perhaps they will allow me to renew 

 it in this edition. Though I cannot be sanguine that this book 

 will live to a third edition, still stranger things have happened, 

 and it is just possible that it may again come to pass that anglers, 

 who have put themselves to the kindly trouble of co-operating 

 through the press or direct, may find that, in the total of experiences 

 put together, they get more than any one of them could individually 

 contribute. 



Anglers are in England a numerous class, whereas in India 

 they form a very small minority of the lovers of sport. Whether 

 for love, or for money, shooting of any sort, and more particularly 

 heavy game shooting, is so much more difficult to obtain in 

 England than in India, that many who in England perforce 

 content themselves with the rod, would in India be seduced by 

 the ruder attractions of the boar-spear, the rifle, and the gun. 

 For myself I can well remember a day in camp, " marked evermore 

 with white," when rising at dawn I heard over my early cup of 

 coffee the trumpeting of elephants, knew that there was a fair 

 chance also of Bison, Sarabre, and Spotted-deer, knew also thai 

 there was a Mahseer river in the valley. In one corner of the 

 camp hut was the battery, in the other were the rods and tackle. 

 Which shall it be ? I may get up to those elephants in a quarter 

 of an hour, I may trudge ten miles and not get a shot. I know 

 that I can make a certainty of the Mahseer. I chose the latter. 

 and brought home six fine fish before breakfast, and never regretted 

 my choice. But I think there are not a few who, in like circum- 

 stances, would unhesitatingly have preferred the rifle to the rod. 

 And thus it comes about that anglers are in India comparatively 

 few. They are all too few to help each other adequately with 

 information over so wide an area as India; all too few to make it 

 worth while to write a book on the subject, except for the love of 

 the thing, therefore there is all the more reason why they should 

 continue to help each other as much as they can. 



