CHAP. xi. Seat for an Indian Coracle. 161 



The height of a dining-room chair is 18 to i8f inches in the seat. A 

 friend who accompanied me would never have his basket seat more 

 than 12 inches high, stuffing included, because of the risk of capsizing 

 the boat if the weight is too high when shooting the rapids. This 

 turned mouth downwards in the boat will give you a comfortable, 

 steady seat. The basket must be very strongly made, or it will 

 get limp, with a lean to one side, and become most delusive just 

 when you are most confiding in it, sending you flying on to your back 

 when the boat bumps against a rock. On this account you may 

 be tempted to have a box instead, but you will find that too heavy 

 to carry. Of course you will never take a valuable box of tackle 

 as a seat. Having had one very pretty pip I never take anything of 

 that sort that I cannot put in my pocket and stick to. The open 

 end of the basket should be closed with a fastenable lid, so as to 

 keep in the fish. Add a slit in one side of your basket seat, and 

 you can then put your fish under you, and have them stowed away 

 out of the sun, and out of the way of your feet, otherwise you 

 may well have the boat so full of fish that you cannot move your 

 feet without treading on and mashing a fish. I add also a basket- 

 work door to the slit, working on a hinge, and fastening with a 

 peg and eye. This keeps the fish in, and enables you to use your 

 chair as a basket when out of the water, and wanting to carry 

 your fish. It comes in handy then, for you have no one but 

 your boatman with you, and if you go ashore to get round an im- 

 passable rapid, the boat, paddle, and landing-net is about as much as 

 the boatman can manage, and you will have to carry your rod 

 and fish yourself. Sometimes you will be tempted to wish the 

 basket was not so full of fish, but do not leave them behind, they 

 are very acceptable to the camp servants and to the boatmen. In 

 this respect I always treat the man that shares the toils of the 

 campaign handsomely. Do it yourself, or the camp servants will 

 treat him badly. It is good policy for sport's sake, as well as 

 the right thing to do. 



If you have not been at the trouble to have a basket of this 

 sort made beforehand, then two or three common baskets, which 

 can be picked up ready-made in any bazaar, put one inside the 

 other, strengthen each other, and are better than nothing. But 

 they are not so comfortable as a properly made basket-seat, for 



THE ROD IN INDIA. M 



