52 Circumventing the Mahseer. CHAP. iv. 



spinning. I will therefore let the above remarks stand for the benefit 

 of the great majority of fishermen, and will refer the man unfortunately 

 overtaken by a spate, and the man who prefers that mode of fishing, to 

 a separate chapter on live-bait fishing for Mahseer. 



To any one with an eye for fish a single glance is sufficient to show 

 that the Mahseer is a carp. It has a leathery mouth without a vestige 

 of a tooth in it anywhere ; the ordinary conclusion would be that carp- 

 like it is not calculated to prey on small fish, but more likely to be 

 taken with dough or a lobworm. An examination of its stomach has, 

 however, told a different tale (page 44), and thence it was that I first 

 learnt how great a fish-eater the Mahseer is. It has the same weakness 

 for a fish diet as its congener the English chub, only it has it to a much 

 greater extent. 



But we have not yet done with our friend's Asiatic contrarieties. 

 This mealy-mouthed gentleman, who looks as if his soft leathery lips 

 could not hurt anything, has a peculiar way of killing his fish. He has 

 no teeth in his mouth wherewith to hold any slippery little fish he may 

 catch, and prevent its struggling out again before he can swallow it. In 

 lieu of this he is therefore provided with great power of jaw, and he 

 kills, and holds his fish, by compression, violent compression. It is 

 difficult to conceive how so soft a mouth can give the bite it does, can 

 bear to give the violent crush it does ; but there is the analogy of the 

 tiger, which has a yielding springy pad, on which it treads noiselessly as 

 on velvet, with which it can however strike a blow that will break the 

 backbone of a buffalo, and crush in the cranium of a man. Doubtless 

 the tiger rigidities the muscles of the foot till the velvet pad is like iron 

 at the moment of delivering its blow, and possibly the Mahseer has the 

 like power, for that it has very great muscular power in its mouth and 

 lips is beyond question, and why should it not be able to harden those 

 muscles, as you can your calf or your biceps, or a cat can her pad when 

 much pleased, at which times her hard tread is very audible ? That the 

 Mahseer can exert great power of compression with its soft mouth I 

 have more than once had clearly proved to me, but the first experience 

 that convinced me is sufficiently conclusive. My spoon bait, which was 

 nearly new, and for weight's sake unusually stout, and in thorough 

 repair when I cast it in for a spin, was doubled right in two, and 

 crumpled up like a piece of paper, when I landed my fish, and took it 

 out of his mouth. He must have happened to catch it edgewise in his 



