148 The Carnatic Carp. CHAP. xi. 



legs and Bond Street breeches, like the owner of the name given it. In 

 this case the name is descriptive of habitat only, and therein I sincerely 

 hope it is erroneous, and that the Carnatic Carp may be found over a 

 much wider area than that assigned to it by Jerdon and Day. But 

 whether or not he is so restricted matters not from an angler's point of 

 view, as there are other fish so like him in form and habits that he may 

 be taken as typical of them also, what applies to him applying to them 

 also in the matter of fishing for them. An exact description of Barbus 

 Carnaticus, quoted from Day's " Fishes of India," will be found at the 

 end of this chapter. It may aid fishermen who are naturalists to 

 recognize it elsewhere. 



Barbus Carnaticus being then simply a Carp of the Carnatic, with 

 your leave we will call him the Carnatic Carp. Don't be vexed with 

 me now for this formal introduction. It is just as well not to pick up 

 a new friend too quickly. Better know something about him first. 

 But now you know his family, we may safely proceed to a closer 

 acquaintance, nay, even to an attachment, so to speak, by means of 

 rod and line. 



You will do very little business from the shore. Indeed, I would 

 not attempt it. You must have a boat, and there is none better than 

 the common basket-boat or coracle of the country. It shoots the rapids, 

 bumps the rocks, skims the shallows better than anything else, and 

 when you come to an utterly unnegotiable waterfall, it the boat not 

 the waterfall ! is very easily taken out and carried round by one man, 

 your boatman. For this reason you should have a small one, just so 

 small that one man can carry it. It will hold you and your boatman 

 comfortably, and all the fish you can catch. It will hold a third man 

 too if you want him, it will hold three safely, but as a rule you do not 

 want a third man, for your boatman can lend you a hand with the 

 landing-net when you want it, and a third man only lessens the 

 buoyancy of the boat, which is not an advantage when shooting a 

 shallow rapid. As to a second fisherman being in the same boat, it is 

 out of the question, for there is no room to manage two fly-rods from 

 cne such small boat. Each fisherman must have a boat to himself. 

 However, you and I will get into one boat just for half-an-hour, and 

 you shall have a cast with my rod, till you get on terms with our new 

 friend. I will take the liberty of supposing you are like a man I had 

 the pleasure of being out with after these same fish, the Carnatic Carp, 



