22 MONSTER FISH. 



sharpest gaff will glance off them. When running a mahseer 

 after it has been fairly hooked, I have never known it leap 

 from the water, and I think it rarely does so, but its long and 

 rapid rushes quite equal if they do not surpass those of any 

 salmon of a similar size. As regards its weight, I am well 

 within the mark when I state that the mahseer reaches 

 nearly, if not quite, 100 Ib. The largest mahseer I ever 

 heard of as having been taken with a trolling bait, was 93 

 Ib. ; and with fly, one that turned the scale at 62 Ib. 1 But 

 such monsters as these are very seldom landed with the rod. 

 My reason for drawing comparisons between the salmon 

 and the mahseer is chiefly because the latter is sometimes 



The Mahseer. 



termed the " salmon of Indian rivers." It might just as well 

 be called a cod, for in truth it more resembles one, barring- 

 its scales, both in appearance and in flesh. It does not even 

 belong to the same family, for I may safely assert, on good 

 authority, 2 that no fish of the Salmonidcie tribe exists in any 

 of the Indian or even more northern waters south of the 

 river Oxus, although there are fish very much resembling 

 trout taken in Indian streams. But let us now try and catch 

 our mahseer. 



Towards the end of September I started with a brother 



1 The 93-pounder was killed by Mr H. Vansittart, C.S., in one of the rivers 

 of the Dehra Doon ; the 62-pounder in the Poonch river in the Punjab, by 

 the late General Sir Herbert Macpherson, who was as keen a sportsman as he 

 was a good and gallant soldier. 



2 The late Dr Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. 



