CHAP. xiv. Goonch and Sinnun. 213 



the Goonch takes it for some exhausted fish that has failed to get past 

 the shutters and is falling back. He also has a preference for a good 

 stout cord that you can haul on to, so as not to waste time or try tackle 

 over their sulking. Others have similarly caught them for the purpose 

 of getting them out of the way for their Mahseer fishing, as they would 

 break Mahseer tackle. 



I have also seen them taken in the still water of the pool below the 

 sluice runs at Narora. 



The flesh of the Goonch is yellow, and the natives are very partial 

 to it. 



The' tackle may be the same as dressed for Mahseer on wire gimp 

 No. 2/0, unless you mean to haul them out hand over hand, when the 

 gimp should be stronger. For strength, see page 208 and make your 

 choice. 



Silundia Gangetica. 



The capturers of the monster Bagarius mention in the Asian of the 

 8th of June, 1880, having caught another large Siluroid at the same 

 place, Okhla, near Delhi, while spinning a tin minnow : " It was very 

 game and fought splendidly, making one magnificent rush of over 

 80 yards, and being gaffed cleverly by a friend after about three- 

 quarters of an hour's anxious play, and before it was quite done up.'' 

 It weighed 42 Ibs. and was 39 inches long without, and 47 with the tail. 

 The native name is given as Sinnun or Silun. Day says it attains to 

 6 feet or more in length, and is to be found in the estuaries to nearly 

 the sources of the rivers of India and Burmah. 



Mr. Cyril Kirkpatrkk tells me that this fish is a very game one, 

 fighting well, and that he fishes for it in the same water as for the 

 Goonch, but for the Silun in the whitest deep water, and in the 

 strongest stream, while he fished the shallow of the white water for 

 the Goonch. He says its colour is golden, like the Mahseer, when 

 coming out of the water, but quickly fading, the fish becoming blue- 

 backed with a white stomach. It is scaleless. Its formula will be 

 given below. The bait is a spoon or fish, but I have a note of one of 

 1 2 Ibs. having been taken on a Mahseer fly at Okhla in May, of which 

 also it is honourably recorded on separate testimony that it " fought 

 magnificently," 



