CHAP. v. The Toughest Bait. 73 



soft, tough, and leathery, presenting a perfect hookhold all over, so 

 that one hook is enough, and two is certainly ample. Moreover, the 

 Mahseer closes his leathery mouth very tight on his fish as I have 

 shown, and the chances are much against his escaping being hooked. 



On all grounds, therefore, I am for as few hooks and as fine tackle 

 as possible with the Mahseer. With some other fish with which we 

 shall have to do hereafter the same necessity may not exist. 



Presuming, then, that I have contrived to seduce my reader into a 

 preference for a dead fish on fine tackle, as being more natural and 

 consequently better calculated to stand closer fish-eyed scrutiny in clear 

 water than any artificial bait, the next question that arises is whether 

 any particular sort of small fish is more killing than another. This I 

 have endeavoured to ascertain by identifying the fish found in the 

 several Mahseer killed; but their digestion is so marvellously rapid, 

 that it is very seldom indeed that the small fish there found are 

 recognisable. Not only have their scales and fins almost always dis- 

 appeared, but their very shape has been lost. Though I have once or 

 twice recognised a few, it does not thence follow that there may not 

 have been several other sorts amongst the ones I could not make out. 

 Though I have seen the Mahseer taking dace-like fish freely in the 

 natural state, and found in them Discognathus lamta (Chapter III.), it 

 is no sequence that they do not as freely take other fish, which I could 

 not see them take, simply because they are small fish that inhabit the 

 bottoms of rivers, and are consequently not within sight. I cannot 

 say, therefore, if the Mahseer have a preference for any particular sort 

 of small fish, and as they seem to take them all alike, whichever is 

 handiest, the question rather is which the fisherman prefers. The 

 several fish that are dace-like show farthest from their white shining 

 scales, but that is not much of a point where the water is clear as crystal, 

 and they are a tender bait, and soon tear on a hook and look dishevelled. 

 The young of the Chela argentea are a favourite bait with some, because 

 they are so very bright and silvery. But they are most frail. Any of 

 these sorts of baits can be readily caught by a throw or two of the 

 casting net in the shallowing edges and tails of the pools of the very 

 river in which you are fishing. Your boatman is probably a fisherman 

 by caste, and has only to be warned to bring his casting net with him. 

 The OpJtiocephalus gachua, however, a somewhat loach-like fish in 

 general appearance, and called in Canarese morant, in Tamil koravai, 



