98 HoWj When, and Where to Fish for Mahseer. CHAP. vi. 



adaptability to distance that it is purposely circumscribed, and that 

 within the limit of distance, whatever that may be, there is no want 

 of keenness. And yet so many anglers act as if it was " as blind as a 

 bat," forgetting that in addition to eyesight a fish has over them great 

 advantages of size, colour, position, and element, of all of which it 

 naturally avails itself. It is not a tenth of the size of a man, and in mutual 

 observations the larger object is obviously calculated to be seen first. 

 Then its colour, like that of most, I may say all, animals, is beautifully 

 adapted to conceal it in its usual habitat, whereas a man who clothes 

 himself by his own imperfect lights and the tailor's, does so in direct 

 variance with all the rules of nature. The object of his fashions is 

 not so much to conceal his existence, as to be "the observed of all 

 observers," and sometimes^ indeed, to be comfortable. What more 

 readily attracts the eye than a white paggaree, and an almost white coat 

 to reflect the sun ? A black coat is very little better, and is noticeable, 

 as every sportsman knows, at a great distance. Then consider the 

 difference of position. The fish is against a background, the bottom, 

 of nearly his own colour, whereas the man is standing out in bold relief 

 against the sky. The fish, furthermore, is motionless, while the man 

 is waving about a great stick of ten or sixteen feet long, moving his 

 arms to do it, and cannot even keep his legs still. He is moving the 

 whole of his comparatively big person, as he walks along the very edge 

 of the stream, and not unfrequently on the top of a high bank. Motion 

 catches the eye. 



But besides these obvious advantages of comparative size, of colour, 

 of position, and of being motionless, the fish has still another very 

 materially favouring circumstance in the element in which he is. Water 

 refracts, or breaks back the line of the rays of light. Newton says : 

 " Refraction out of a rarer medium into a denser is made toward the 

 perpendicular," and as water is denser than air, the fish can see you 

 round a corner j he can see your white paggaree before it is in a line 

 with his eye. This is very simply demonstrated in the old illustration 

 about a shilling. Put a rupee into an empty tea-cup or a slop-basin. 

 Retreat gradually till it is just out of your line of vision. Let a second 

 person pour in water, and you will see the rupee come into sight again. 

 H A K being the surface of the water, when you look down at the 

 angle B A, and think you see a fish in a straight line at D, it is really 

 at C, and when a fish at C looks up in the direction C A L it sees you 



