CHAPTER III. 

 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAHSEER. 



"I in these flowery meads would be; 

 These crystal streams should solace me ; 

 To whose harmonious bubbling noise 

 I with my angle would rejoice." 



IZAAK WALTON. 



" a.vi\Kvffa 



roi XP vff V WWlHUUTlUtW." THEOC. ID. XXI. 



"I landed him, a fish compact with gold." 



CHAPMAN'S Translation. 



IT may be interesting to some that a few words should here be intro- 

 duced on the natural history of the Mahseer. The Mahseer is a 

 carp, though, as we shall see hereafter, very different in size, flavour, 

 strength, activity, and so forth, from his ignoble namesake in England, 

 or rather from the fish we have been accustomed from our boyhood to 

 call the carp, as if there was not a very large family of them. So if you 

 like it better, you can call him a barbel. His genealogy may be 'given 

 as follows : 



Animalia. 

 Vertebrata. 

 Class. Pisces. 

 Sub-class. Teleostii. 

 Order. Physostomi. 

 Family. Cyprinidae. 

 Sub-family. Cyprininae. 

 Genus. Barbus. 



Sub-genus. Barbodes. 



Species. Barbus (Barbodes) tor. 

 or Species. Barbus tor. 



