SAFELY LANDED. 31 



As I gradually reel him in, I can, for the first time, catch 

 an occasional glimpse of his form looming largely through 

 the water, and the sun glints now and again on his golden 

 scales as he rolls helplessly about. At length I am able to 

 tow him towards a good landing-place, where, after his 

 making some of those last desperate wriggling efforts to 

 get free, during which a fish is so apt to be lost after all, 

 Chundreea bestrides him, and carefully lifting the strug- 

 gling, shining beauty by the gills from the shallow water, 

 proudly carries him ashore, and throws him kicking among 

 the stones on the bank. 



My scaly prize was at once weighed, and found to be 26 

 Ib. This restored my flagging hopes, and I was soon fixed 

 into another fish, which took out the line with such a swish 

 and fought so hard, that at first I thought it equalled the 

 first one in weight, and not until it had been on some time 

 did I discover that it was little more than half as big. 

 But not even another rug did I get that day. There is 

 nothing like patience for fishing, and nothing like fishing for 

 trying it. 



Next day the river rose again from the effects of heavy 

 rain higher up, and somewhat resembled the colour of potato- 

 soup. We found, too, that it was not the best time for the 

 Surjoo valley, as the warm and steamy atmosphere, biting 

 flies, &c., made sport there, at that season, more toilsome than 

 pleasant. The months of March and April are, I think, the 

 best for mahseer-fishing, as the climate is then more pleasant 

 and healthy in these low valleys than during September and 

 October the best autumn months and the fish in the moun- 

 tain streams more readily take the fly, and are in better con- 

 dition in spring. It is said that on the days which succeed 

 moonlight nights, mahseer are not so readily taken as they 

 are after moonless ones; and, strange to say, they are generally 

 more easily moved on bright sunny days than on dark cloudy 

 ones. The flies that seem to suit their taste as well as any, 

 are bright and gaudy ones that show well in the water, like 



