30 The Natural History of the Mahseer. CHAP. in. 



manner ? Let them ; and they will see that the colours change every 

 second after the fish is out of the water. The eye travels from 

 individual scales to gill covers, to the head, the fins and tail, and before 

 it returns to the original spot, a change has come over that spot, and it 

 is perceptible. The next survey is made more rapidly, but still there is 

 a noticeable change. Thus to notice the changes is easy ; but to catch 

 each fleeting shade of colour before it is gone is very far from easy. 

 This is what I have essayed to do in my second edition. I did not 

 care to present my readers with the corpse-like colouring of dead and 

 dying fish. I wanted the resplendent hues of healthy living fish as 

 Nature paints them when rejoicing in their element. How did I essay 

 it ? I took an artist with me to the water's edge. He had ready rough 

 drawings of fish in any number, and his colours, brushes, etc., were 

 handy. The moment I landed a fish he hit the colours, and roughly 

 and rapidly filled them in. I did the same by his side. We compared 

 notes. We were conscious that change had been going on as we 

 coloured, and that it was hard to say wherein the earliest and wherein 

 the later colours had been correctly seized. So another fish was caught, 

 and the colours of the painting compared with it the instant it was on 

 shore. Necessary corrections having been made, another was captured, 

 and yet another, and these all had to be captured at a season of the year 

 in which the fish were in high condition, with a healthy colour. The 

 result was that I had colouring which some told me must surely be too 

 bright, whereas I affirm that the failure was rather in the opposite 

 direction. I could not get sufficient resplendency. I could not add to 

 each colour the look of burnished metal. I could not give the changing 

 reflections of each angle of light on the glistening coloured scales, the 

 varying hues of semi-transparent fins showing differently with a dark or 

 a light background. Enough that I did my little best to help my 

 readers to recognize our mutual friends of whom we chat together. 



Keen fishermen will understand that it is no easy matter to lay 

 down the rod and take up the brush when the fish are on the run. 

 There were times when it could not be done at any price, no not for an 

 annual gold mine. There were times, too, when appliances were 

 wanting. Friends have engaged to colour fish for me in places 

 inaccessible to myself, and finding the same difficulties have abandoned 

 the attempt. Others have most kindly supplied paintings which 

 unfortunately could not be accepted for want of accuracy. 



