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



carried from the river to the camp. But the rate of shrinkage must be 

 a variable quantity dependent on the weather. 



The handiest implement for weighing with is the one figured in the 

 margin, and called by some of the tackle-shops a steelyard, by some 

 a spring-balance. I will follow the latter title as being nearer the mark, 

 though it is neither a steelyard nor a balance, but a weighing spring. 

 A steelyard proper has no spring whatever in it, and is solely depen- 

 dent on leverage for its results. The steelyard of the tackle-shops, 

 which I am calling after them a spring-balance, weighs by means of the 

 spring afforded by the coil of steel wire. 



You can buy these spring-balances shown in the margin of any size 

 and quality you like, made to weigh anything from an 'ounce to sixty 

 pounds, and they can easily be carried in the pocket so as to 

 be on the spot for weighing a fish directly it is caught. The 

 sizes and prices shall be duly given you in the chapter on rod 

 and tackle. 



When I bought my fishing tackle I thought a spring-balance 

 weighing up to thirty-two pounds was big enough for any man. 

 But one fine day I had the misfortune to catch a Mahseer 

 well over that weight, and, of course, I was particularly anxious 

 to know its exact weight. I had in camp two spring-balances, 

 weighing respectively up to twenty-eight pounds and thirty-two 

 pounds. I passed a stout cord through the rings of the two> 

 and suspended them from a bough. Then a cord attached 

 to the fish and passed over the two hooks suspended the 

 fish simultaneously from them both. Reading off the weight in- 

 dicated by the two instruments and adding them together, the result 

 was the weight of the fish, forty-six pounds. If neither of the springs 

 is pulled down beyond its power of springing, the total is bound to be 

 accurate. I have tested it. 



There is another way of doubling the weighing power of your 

 spring-balance. But you must do it to a nicety or you will run into 

 error, the divergence of an eighth of an inch anywhere begetting it. 

 Take a stick of any length available, say about a yard, more or less, 

 and, judging the centre, mark it, and measure off with careful accuracy 

 the same length on both sides of the centre and mark them. Then 

 attach a small loop of cord to each of these marked places firmly, so 

 that it cannot shift its position. A slight notch at each marked place 



