212 Freshwater Sharks. CHAP, xiv 



when the sluices heading the Agra Canal just above the weir are closed. 

 The monster weighing 136 Ibs. caught by Mr. Van Cortland was, I believe, 

 caught in the white water of the rapid, or just below it in the full strength 

 of the stream, and I have frequently seen a Goonch take my spoon or 

 minnow here as soon as it touched the water. 



" They lie very often with their backs just out of water and are easily 

 shot with a bullet. Mr. Cyril Kirkpatrick, with whom I have more than 

 once fished at this place, and in whose company I hope to do so again 



before many days are over, can corroborate my experiences on this point. 

 ****** 



" With reference to ' Rod's' first letter in the Asian of the I3th instant, 

 on the effects of temperature, I have generally found that in the cold^eason 

 predatory fish do not take freely, at least in tanks. 



" My experience of river fishing in the cold season is very liiL^/cl, and 

 T have only noticed personally one exception to this which occurred on 

 the 1 7th, 1 8th, and igth of February last year. I fished on those dates 

 in a tank in the Hissar district from I P.M. to 4 P.M., and killed respectively 

 eight, six, and one fish of the Wallago attu species with a spoon as big 

 as a dessert spoon, silver plated on both sides. These fish ran from 3 Ibs. 

 to 15 Ibs., average weight 6^ Ibs. 



" I had in the month of June in the preceding year killed one hundred 

 and twenty-five of these fish in three days with spoon and minnow, but 

 they only averaged 3 Ibs. as the tank was very much overstocked with 

 them and they were probably half starved. This thinning out of them 

 evidently improved their size very rapidly, as only eight months elapsed 

 between the two occasions, and it evidently shows that these fish grow 

 at a most astounding rate when able to obtain plenty of food. 



" The days in February above quoted were bitterly cold, especially the 

 17th, on which I killed eight fish, in fact so cold, after heavy rain a day 

 or two before, that, although I had shot on foot along a ten mile stage 

 from 8.30 A.M. till midday, I was shivering when I arrived at my camp. 



" I do not think, however, that the habits of predatory fish in tanks 

 afford anything like an accurate test of the same fish in rivers. 



"On the nth of this month I fished at Okhla in a cold wind but a 

 hot sun, and did not rise a fish though I saw a few, all of predaceous species, 

 rising at about 3.30 P.M., and the belief is general, so far as I can discover, 

 among fishermen in the Punjab, that the cold season is not suitable for 

 fishing even when the water is in good order, as it generally is at that 

 season in this part of India. 



"YUBA BILL." 



"Delhi, 22nd February, 1883." 



Mr. Cyril Kirkpatrick also prefers the shallow at the head of the 

 white water for these fish, where, letting the bait down the white water, 



