188 Eels. Ciiapt. xv. 



any case yon would have to throw away at the end of the day 

 from its being dead. They will afford them a good meal, and you 

 beaming countenances to look upon ! 



The plan is to set night lines with dead fish. Take your dead 

 bait of 4 inches more or less in length, and string one on to a 

 common double eel hook on wire, by passing the baiting needle 

 down the throat and out at the centre of the tail, and drawing your 

 hook after it till the hooks are well home to the mouth of the bait. 

 Then attach the hook to the line, and having tied a bullet or other 

 good sized sinker to the line, throw it well into the middle of any 

 good, large, deep, still pool ; make well fast to the shore, and leave it 

 all night. If you have set half-a-dozen of these, you will probably 

 find two or three eels on in the morning. 



These common double eel hooks are to be bought in India. 

 Oakes and Co., at Madras, have them, and so doubtless have 

 the tackle shops in Northern India and Bombay. But a neater 

 arrangement is a common pike gorge hook, because there you have 

 the weight neatly stowed away inside your bait ; and the hooks 

 are shaped so as to sit closely against the mouth of a bait, and 

 consequently to go comfortably down the throat. Facilis descensus 

 Amnio est. But as to coming up again, scd rrwcurr tjritdum, that's 

 quite another business. 



Your night line must be a good stout one, and well made fast, 

 for the fish is strong, very strong, and has the whole night to him- 

 self to work his wicked will. 



They are all fish-eaters, so the more your servants catch, the 

 better for the little Mahseer, the youthful Barils, and the un- 

 sophisticated young of the other sorts of game fly-taking fish. 

 Encourage them, therefore, to go in at them heavily, and show them 

 how to draw the hook home so as to lie neatly against the lips of 

 the bait, and so, in fart , t hat it shall oiler no obstacle to a fish that 

 gradually swallows your bail head foremost. 



Be wary how you handle Mastacembli because of the sharp 

 spines on their backs. Their fry may be seen in the rice fields. 

 They are widely distributed. 



I see no sport in this style of fishing. 



