CHAP. in. Colours of Mahseer. 29 



a fashion not neglected even in the agile tiger, but the abdomen is not 

 pendulous as in the corpulent cat or the cow-fed tiger, but firm and 

 solid. Please do not think that the representation in the plate is a 

 mistake of the artist and overdrawn. 



To insure accuracy of drawing, every detail of form has in all cases 

 been taken life size by compass, and then the reduction from that 

 drawing has not been made by eye, but in numerous comparative 

 squares, so that we are insured against even a single scale being too 

 high or too low, as well as against any part being disproportioned. 

 And the reductions from the second edition to this have been made 

 by photography. 



When fry they are long and thin and round, not deep, and 

 larger headed in proportion than when mature, bearing about as much 

 resemblance in figure to the form of their parents, as a stripling does to 

 his broad-shouldered, well-filled-out ancestor. Still, there is no mis- 

 taking them, and they can be picked out at a glance by their large 

 scales and general appearance, without any necessity for closer 

 identification by counting fin rays, etc. As they grow they soon show 

 a tendency to be deeper and higher backed than other Mahseers. 



In colouring also it is a most handsome fish. It would be difficult 

 for any artist to do justice to the rich golden hue which shines on the 

 gill covers, and is the predominant colour of every scale. It is from 

 this colour that the natives of that locality call it Bom-min (the o like 

 the o in kingdom, the i long like mien or mean), which is the Tamil for 

 gold fish, from pon gold and min fish. The colour is not at all that of 

 the little Chinese gold fish, to which we are accustomed in glass vases, 

 but something between the colour of a bright new sovereign and that 

 of bright shining copper fresh from the mint, the burnished copper the 

 colour of the outside of each scale, and the tinge of brighter gold 

 flashing through the centre of each scale, and coming out almost all 

 over the gill covers, and showing itself freely in parts of each fin. 



How could any artist do justice to such colouring without the 

 actuals before him. And even with the living fish before him it calls for 

 a good artist to seize truth and represent it, for truth in fish colouring 

 is evanescent. My learned readers will readily recall to mind how 

 noble Romans had at their sumptuous feasts live mullet laid upon the 

 table that they might watch the beautifully changing hues of the expiring 

 fish. Have my readers watched a high conditioned Mahseer in like 



