CHAP. vi. Fishing Localities. 105 



between n and 3, and I think the best hours are before 9 A.M. and 

 after 4 P.M. till sunset. Directly after sunset they cease running at a 

 spinning bait, though they will take a night line. I presume this is 

 because they do not see well enough in the dark for the moving bait, 

 and are guided to the stationary bait of the night line chiefly by scent. 

 As to the uselessness of going on spinning after dark, the keenest 

 reader may I think be content to take me on trust, for, when by the 

 river's side, I have been so keen myself as to go on fishing into the 

 dusk and dark, though the place was densely forest-clad, and the margin 

 marked with fresh tracks of crocodiles and panthers, only taking the 

 precaution of having a man behind me with a loaded rifle, and trusting 

 to his having sufficient care for his own vile body to keep a good look 

 out in the rear of mine. 



Where to fish. And now for where ; where, in the two senses 

 of in what waters, and in what parts of those waters. Mahseer, I 

 believe, are to be found in every large perennial river in India. I know 

 that they are to be found in every river on the west coast that I ever 

 heard of. I know they are to be found in the Mysore rivers ; I know 

 they are in the Cavery, the Bawanny, the Kistna, the Tungabudra, and 

 the Godavery. I hear of them in all the good rivers of Northern India. 

 The lover of the picturesque will find them, admiring with him the 

 adjective-exhausting falls of Gairsoppa, and dancing in the glad waters 

 of Hoginkal, and other falls of Cavery ; in Afghanistan, Chitral, Burmah, 

 China, and, I believe, Japan, they are equally at home; and I believe 

 they have, in the East at least, every bit as much right as the Artillery 

 to the grand motto Ubique. 



But they mostly affect the rocky mountainous parts of rivers. I 

 had almost said they are confined to such parts, and are not to be 

 found where the river grows broader and shallower with a sandy bed. 

 There are no doubt instances where they markedly cease as the river 

 leaves the mountains, and I have known them called an essentially 

 mountain fish in consequence. But they are to be found again where 

 rocks recur lower down the river than the sandy flats, and there are 

 deep pools and heavy runs among the rocks ; and they are even to be 

 found in deep, still pools without a rock in them, so that it is not clear 

 what rule, if any, governs their selection of locality. But I think there 

 is no doubt that they chiefly affect the rocky mountainous parts of 

 rivers, and that very many more and finer Mahseer are to be found in 



