6 Introductory. CHAP. i. 



unaided, I have endeavoured to bring together in this volume all the 

 information kindly afforded by others. That contained in newspaper 

 contributions will be found in Chapter XXVI., on Fishing Localities, 

 the source and the nom de plume being always given. Some of my 

 readers may find double interest in, and attach increased weight to, 

 these contributions, from recognizing under a nom de plume a friend 

 well known by them to be a master in the art. 



Besides the contributions of unknown writers, I am able to give 

 my readers two interesting communications, one from the pen of 

 Colonel J. Parsons, and the other by Colonel W. Osborn, commanding 

 9th M.N.I. Sportsmen will find them both valuable. 



The further experience had since 1873 has also enabled me to 

 introduce not a little additional matter of my own. 



If sportsmen think that the above invitation has resulted in any 

 advantage to themselves, perhaps they will allow me to renew it in this 

 edition. ' Though I cannot be sanguine that this book will live to a 

 third edition, still stranger things have happened, and it is just possible 

 that it may again come to pass that anglers, who have put themselves 

 to the kindly trouble of co-operating through the press or direct, may 

 find that, in the total of experiences put together, they get more than 

 any one of them could individually contribute. 



Anglers are in England a numerous class, whereas in India they 

 form a very small minority of the lovers of sport. Whether for love, 

 or for money, shooting of any sort, and more particularly heavy game 

 shooting, is so much more difficult to obtain in England than in India, 

 that many, who in England perforce content themselves with the rod, 

 would in India be seduced by the ruder attractions of the boar-spear, 

 the rifle, and the gun. For myself I can well remember a day in camp, 

 " marked evermore with white," when rising at dawn I heard over my 

 early cup of coffee the trumpeting of elephants, knew that there was 

 a fair chance also of bison, sambre, and spotted-deer, knew also that 

 there was a Mahseer river in the valley. In one corner of the camp 

 hut was the battery, in the other were the rods and tackle. Which 

 shall it be ? I may get up to those elephants in a quarter of an hour, 

 I may trudge ten miles and not get a shot. I know that I can make 

 a certainty of the Mahseer. I chose the latter, and brought home six 

 fine fish before breakfast, and never regretted my choice. But I think 

 there are not a few who, in like circumstances, would unhesitatingly 



