INTRODUCTORY. 9 



this wealth of picturesque outline is 

 bathed in the soft brilliancy of tropical 

 atmosphere ; and the effect, to eyes un- 

 familiar with the scene, is a happy 

 stupor of admiration. Many a half -hour 

 did I waste in helpless gazing, when I 

 reached my future home at Belikeri, 

 where the charms of the coast seem to 

 culminate. 



Coondapoor was a fair specimen of 

 western coast scenery, but I am chiefly 

 concerned to describe the curious sort 

 of fishing I saw there. 



There was in that neighbourhood, in 

 the grounds of an ancient temple, a 

 rectangular sheet of water of fifty or 

 sixty yards wide ; and in this pond were 

 fish of a kind not to be found elsewhere, 

 and quite unique in their habits, inas- 



