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



was greeted by him with awe-inspiring silence while he mysteriously 

 led me round a tent and pointed, still silent, to a grand fish hanging 

 up. " Oh, that is a fine fish," I began, when he cut in with an injured 

 and decisive air : " It's Cornly." And then he added : " You try the 

 same pool again, you'll find his brother there." And so it was that I 

 started the next morning with two spring-balances in my pocket. It 

 is their portability that commends them, as it allows of your weighing 

 your fish directly after capture. 



But if y9ii prefer a spring-balance with a dish attached in which you 

 can put at one weighing a lot of smaller fish, as recommended for 

 labeo (Tank Angling, p. 61), or at will hang a bigger fish from the 

 hook, then Salter's spring-balances with the circular dial plate are very- 

 convenient. They are readily procurable in the grocers' shops weighing 

 up to thirty pounds, by ounces, for domestic purposes, but the makers, 

 whence your tackle-maker can procure them to complete your order, 

 keep them weighing up to almost any weight. 



At the Sappers' and Miners' workshops, Roorkee, they make a handy 

 spring-weigher that weighs up to twenty-four seers on one side, and to 

 one hundred and twenty seers, which is two hundred and forty pounds, 

 on the other, using different hooks and loop handles which give different 

 leverages. The price is Rs. 10.12, by value payable post. 



The steelyard proper, or old Roman balance, depends solely on 

 leverage for its weighments, and once correctly marked, ought never 

 to vary, for there is no spring to get strained or clogged with dust 

 or rust. It has two hooks by which to suspend it. When suspended 

 by the hook farthest from the short end, it will give you an enlarged 

 reading of the minor weights. If you wish to weigh larger weights you 

 must invert the instrument and suspend by the hook nearest to the 

 short end. The fish is hung on the hook at the end, and the weight 

 is moved along the bar till you arrive at an equipoise, when you may 

 read off the weight of your fish, and chortle or otherwise, according as 

 the fish comes up to your expectations or does not. You will get it 

 in any butcher's shop, but it is clumsy, being made only for heavy 

 butcher's work. 



I made one for myself of wood, capable of weighing anything from 

 a minnow to an ox, and so may you, though perhaps you do not need 

 to be so comprehensive as I had to be. Take a neatly squared and 

 planed piece of tough wood, twice as deep as it is thick, the strength 



