CHAP. in. About the size of Cornly. 39 



will be an additional security against alteration of the position of the 

 loops by slipping. Hang one end loop on the hook of the spring- 

 balance, let an attendant hold the other loop so as to have the stick 

 pretty level, attach the fish to the centre loop, and reading off the 

 weight shown on the spring-balance double it for the weight of the fish. 

 The use of the stick is simply the addition of the principle of the steel- 

 yard proper to the weighing power of the spring-balance. If you work 

 out the principle properly, you can as easily multiply the power of your 

 spring-balance by four or other multiple ; but the larger the multiple and 

 the shorter the stick, the greater the danger of error from want 

 of sufficient nicety of accuracy in the position of the loops. And if 

 from dirt or rust or wear there is any initial inaccuracy in the spring- 

 balance, of course it too is multiplied. The plan is an ingenious con- 

 ception for an emergency, but if you have two spring-balances their use, 

 as above indicated, is simpler and less liable to error. 



How came I to have two spring-balances in my pocket at the 

 moment of catching that forty-six pounder ? Because I put them there 

 for the express purpose of weighing that very individual before I started 

 fishing that morning. I had been fishing that locality a year before, and 

 with the aid of a friend who exhibited extraordinary capabilities in that 

 direction, had succeeded in parting with all my spoons to avaricious 

 Mahseer, and had on my last, the size of a table-spoon, when up came 

 a huge beast close under my nose, showed a shoulder like an ox above 

 water, and with one sudden blow broke off my spoon at the swivel. 

 Arrived at headquarters at the end of my leave, I sought sympathy from 

 a brother of the angle, not the one that expended my spoons, but one 

 of the right sort. " How big was he ? " he asked. " My dear fellow, 

 I haven't weighed him yet, but he'll keep. He'll be in that same pool 

 waiting for us this time next year, and then we'll be even with him." 

 " But how big do you think he was ? " he persisted. Well, the two 

 biggest men in the station, a large one, were two brothers, the younger 

 an editor, and the elder a doctor, and the doctor was the heavier, by 

 about a stone, from being well filled out. Let us call them Cornly. 

 " Well," I said, " if you wish me to be so confoundedly exact, he was 

 about the size of Cornly not the editor, the doctor." It turned out 

 that my friend was able to get leave before I was, so I gave him a 

 sketch from memory of the pool, and the holt. As soon as I could get 

 my leave I followed him, and arriving at his camp after a long ride, 



