CHAP. vi. Eyesight Keen though Circumscribed. 97 



and my rod kept on bowing elegant approval, while we had our lively 

 dance together, at the end of which I led her to a seat in the boat. So 

 ended this " spin." 



Fishing in bright water as one does, and as I have explained should 

 do, in India, many a little pantomime of this sort is seen throughout, 

 and something learnt therefrom of the manners and customs of the scaly 

 aborigines. But it should always be remembered that two can play at 

 that game. If you can see the fish easily, so too can he see you, and 

 much more easily than you can see him. He has every advantage 

 over you. Though I have twice touched passingly on this subject 

 already (pages 56, 58, 59), it is well worthy to be gone thoroughly into, 

 because it is at the very bottom of all good fishing, cannot well be made 

 too much of, and finds proper place here on remarks how to fish. The 

 very first principle, the most important rule of fishing, is to keep well 

 out of sight, and to accomplish this end too much pains can scarcely 

 be taken. Again and again have I urged this as the main secret, on 

 brothers of the angle, who questioned how on earth I managed to get 

 my basket so full of trout. But again and again have I found that all 

 the same they have only half admitted its force, concluding, ostrich-like, 

 that because they could not see the fish, the fish could not see them. I 

 feel, therefore, from the experience aforesaid, that it is almost a hopeless 

 task to convert my reader from the general neglect of this maxim, to a 

 thorough belief in the all importance of keeping it constantly in view, 

 and of acting up to it with the amount of painstaking care that is 

 necessary to command success. Indeed, I find I constantly have to be 

 taking my own self to task for not being sufficiently careful in the matter, 

 thoroughly though I believe in, and practise what I preach. 



Properly to appreciate the necessity for exercising unusual pains to 

 keep out of sight it is as well to consider the facilities which the fish 

 has for seeing. Putting aside for the moment the exceptions amongst 

 fish which, like the Freshwater Shark ( Wallago attu\ have their eyes 

 less developed and are more dependent on smell and feeling, and 

 referring here only to the majority of fish which are mainly depen- 

 dent for their existence on their eyesight, common observation of the 

 rapidity with which they see the minutest objects passing them in the 

 water suffices to show that their sight must be good ; and though there 

 may be some controversy about the imperfection of a fish's visual 

 organs, I incline to the opinion that it is only in this one respect of 



THE ROD IN INDIA. H 



