CHAPTER XV. 

 THE SEETUL, BATCHWA AND OTHERS. 



"I care not I to fish in seas, 

 Fresh rivers best my mind do please." 



ISAAK WALTON. 



SINCE writing my last edition of this book, and since the birth of 

 " Tank Angling," I have made the personal acquaintance of the Seetul, 

 and have been so charmed- with my new friend that I must give him a 

 new chapter. 



Let me formally introduce him as Notopterus chitala, called in 

 various vernaculars, Chitala, Chitul, Seetul, Moie, Mohi, Moh, Gundun y 

 and Bunnah in Tirhoot, attaining at least 4 feet in length. 



Previously knowing them only by book and report, I first saw them 

 for myself at the Narora anicut. The water was alive with them, rolling 

 over on the surface, displaying their bright silvery sides, they are very 

 flat-sided as well as very silvery, and giving one the impression that 

 they were surface feeders. On that hypothesis therefore I fished for 

 them, and fished in vain. But there were some seven other good rods 

 there beside your humble servant, rods to whom the Seetul was no- 

 stranger, and one of them catching one I asked to see it. The 

 formation of the mouth made me mistrust the surface antics as play, ' 

 not feeding, and conclude that feeding would ordinarily be at the 

 bottom. The size also of the mouth told again its own tale. The 

 mouth was remarkably small for so large a fish, indicating that the 

 natural food must be small. And the dentition was not formidable, 

 the teeth being viliform or file like. I took a look also at the tackle 

 with which my brother angler had caught the fish. But instead of 

 exactly copying it I had an idea I could manufacture something more 

 to the fancy of my new customer. So looking about me to try and 

 discover what it could be that my new friend was feeding on, I saw that 



