"218 fishing in Estuaries. Chapt. xvii. 



shows really exciting sport. Acclimatized to water that is very 

 slightly brackish, it runs to 20 or 30 lbs. in a pond at Cundapur, 

 and having the repute of having been reserved by Hyder for his 

 own use, it has ever since been protected, and going by the 

 name of Hyder's fish, is believed to be a freshwater fish, im- 

 ported and put there by Hyder. I entertain no doubt, however, 

 that the fry introduced themselves through a breached sluice 

 from the adjoining estuary, and that, on the sluice being per- 

 manently closed, they gradually got acclimatized to the watei 

 growing less and less salt. Now they breed there freely. Being 

 satisfied this must be the explanation, I showed a peon a stulli-d 

 specimen, and, impressing every detail of its form on him, and 

 making him repeat them with his back to the fish, ami selecting 

 the month in which I thought it most probable that the (Jl 

 stiliiKiiirus would enter the estuaries to spawn, and allowing time 

 for the fry to hatch and grow before going to sea, I sent the 

 peon to the estuary, not the pond, to catch some fry and take 

 them to another lake, the bigger Karkal Lake. He found them 

 as predicted, and introduced fifty in the Karkal Lake, bringing 

 me back specimens in spirits that I might be satisfied there had 

 been no mistake. 



The full grown fish are caught in the pond in a singular 

 manner. 



Ordinary drag nets are connected till they are together long 

 enough to stretch right across the pond ; but not a single fish of 

 this description is by any chance ever caught in this net; its sole 

 use is to frighten them. Behind this net comes a long row of 

 small canoes tied to the drag net at short intervals, so that the 

 hauling of the drag net shall keep them in their places close behind 

 the drag net. On the thwarts in these canoes stand men extending 

 B similar net in the air, at about the angle of 45° from the water, to 

 the greatest heighl they can reach. Thus arranged, the line proceeds, 

 and the fish, frightened by the drag net in the water, endeavour to 

 Leap over it. and in bo doing fall into the net spread in the air. It 

 is a sight to see a silvery salmon-like lish of 20 pounds or there- 

 abouts face the line with a spring that clears boats and standing 

 men and up-raised nets. Sometimes he haps against the net 

 close to the boatman, or even hits him and brings him down like .i 

 nine-pin, a sort of tumbling that the fishermen seem to enjoy it 



