THE RAIEWALLA POOL. 187 



before it was time to return for breakfast I had landed three 

 more. 



Mahseer of enormous weight are often taken in the rivers 

 of the Dehra Boon and the Terai with trolling baits phantom 

 minnows about 6 inches long, or even larger, being used for 

 big fish. Every Indian fisherman either knows or has heard, 

 of the Eaiewalla pool in the Doon, so famous for the monster 

 mahseer that are killed in it when the water gets into right 

 order after a heavy flood. But to fish it properly you must 

 use either a portable boat of some kind, or what is perhaps 

 better, and can generally be procured from the native fisher- 

 men a semai, which is a contrivance composed of three or four 

 big inflated skins, with a common native charpai (bed-frame) 

 fastened over them. On this you sit, with a man to paddle 

 you about. It need hardly be said that you must land to kill 

 your fish. Most excellent sport is also to be had in the 

 streams of the Doon with the fly, although the fish killed 

 with it are not, as a rule, so heavy. In proof of this I may 

 mention that on one occasion towards the end of October, 

 Major (the late General Sir Herbert) Macpherson of my 

 regiment and myself killed, in two and a half days' fishing at 

 the junction of the Ason stream with the Jumna, 221 Ib. 

 weight of mahseer, averaging 6 Ib. or 7 Ib., the largest being 

 20 Ib. Had we been working with the minnow instead 

 of fly only, we might in all probability have doubled this 

 amount and have killed much larger fish. The fly we were 

 using was a bright one, like the " Jock Scott," about If inches 

 long. I generally found this style of fly, of different sizes, 

 was successful with mahseer; but every disciple of Izaak 

 Walton has his own theories about the " gentle craft," and may 

 probably find a totally different one answer quite as well. 

 And after all, if the fish are in a regular fly-taking humour, I 

 am inclined to think that almost any combination of feathers 

 and tinsel will suit the taste of a salmon or a mahseer. A 

 well-known Doon fisherman of bygone days used to declare 



