248 Fishing in Estuaries. CHAP. xvm. 



cleared them away for the benefit of the shipping ! ! Probably not, for 

 they were not in mid-channel. There was a fish there that we used to 

 call the Pamban salmon and were well content with the name, for in 

 those days I had not troubled my head with fish nomenclature and 

 classification. It turns out to be our mutual friend Polynemus. Either 

 P. tetradactylus or P. Jndicus, probably the latter. I only had one hour 

 at them, but it is a day to be remembered in all my lifetime. What 

 splendid sport they gave ! We anchored the boat at the head of the 

 run, and fished below us in the middle of it We used a full-sized 

 salmon fly, made of nothing but the white feather of a quill pen, tied 

 palmer-fashion all over it. Much the same fly is used for Bass in 

 England. How freely they rose, and how vigorously they tugged. 

 My companion, who put me up to it, and provided rod and boat, lived 

 there, and used to catch any number of them. But there were certain 

 seasons, he said, in which they would not take at all. Which were the 

 favourable and which the unfavourable months, I cannot at this length 

 of time recall. W., fishing there in October, writes me : " Pamban 

 salmon do not come on till late in the year." I presume he means 

 later than October. 



The then Port Officer of Pamban wrote me on the 28th of 

 September : " Polynemus is just coming in season and will be plentiful 

 next month." 



The natives, in fishing for Bamin, use a strong cord, with a large 

 sea-hook, on a piece of bell-wire. But they use much direct force in 

 pulling in their fish, because they have very crude ideas about the 

 suaviter in modo, fortiter in re principle of running tackle on a reel, 

 which enables you in time to kill a heavy fish on a light line. Don't 

 be alarmed, therefore, at their tremendous preparations, but trust to 

 stout wire gimp, and a salmon rod, with a good length of line, and 

 making your fish work as hard as you dare for every inch of it. Do 

 not waste a bit of it by giving it too easily. The native fisherman may 

 examine your tackle, and condemn it as too weak, and you may be 

 disposed to believe in him, because he has actually killed the fish, and 

 ought to know. Never mind that ; just do with him the very same as 

 you will probably do with this book, namely, listen to all his advice, 

 and then don't follow it. Only draw your own conclusions therefrom. 

 At the same time you need not be uncivil, or he will become uncom- 

 municative. Do not rudely disturb his complacent belief that you 



