296 Miscellaneous. CHAPT. xxiii. 



with him overnight, with instructions to lay a paper scent. 

 With posted horses, G. and I did 30 miles across unknown 

 country, in this way, country in which it was easy to lose one's 

 way, and got in comfortably for breakfast. With guides at a foot's 

 pace it would have taken us all day. 



When white ants are on the water, they are said to be 

 like the May fly in that the fish will look at nothing else. I 

 can well believe it. But their flight is very short lived. 



I tried white elephant's hair as a substitute for gut. When 

 dry it seemed as tough as a wire, but when well soaked it 

 became very elastic, and broke at a tension of 6 lbs. 



Size in a river affects both the feeding and the lifetime of 

 fish. Regarding the feeding we may say that size in a river 

 ordinarily implies a greater quantity and a greater variety of 

 food ; and in India, where rivers are so liable to suffer from 

 drought and from the supply of irrigation, it implies also greater 

 constancy of food supply. Each one of these three items of 

 quantity, quality, constancy in the food supply has a marked 

 influence on the growth of fish; all three combined have neces- 

 sarily a much greater effect. As to quantity it is marvellous 

 what an amount a fish will eat, and the rapidity of its digestion 

 is extraordinary. You may see trout quite poor in condition 

 alter a long drought, and a single flood in the afternoon leaves 

 them markedly improved in condition the very next day. 

 Their food sticks to their ribs in no time. It is a good thing it is 

 not the same with you and me. And then the quantity they 

 take. I have caught trout full to the very mouth of food, at one 

 time of flies, at another of small slugs, at another of young eels. 

 There was no necessity to apply pressure to make them disgorge. 

 Their stomachs were distended, and their last food still unswullowed. 

 .And yet they showed no signs of surfeit, for they took my bait 

 and made a much more active fight than a fish in lower condition. 

 1 expect a fish with a surfeit is as hard to find as a contented 

 man. I know it is said that over feeding on sewage makes the 

 roach at places in the Thames so gross that they lose their fertility, 

 bul I should think it wai highly questionable. All other experience 

 is in favour of rapid growth accompanying liberal feeding in fish, 

 and of maturity and fertility being proportioned to the size of the fish. 

 The best fed salmon-par return to the sea and come back as salmon 



