CHAP, xviii. The Seer. 257 



I am inclined to think much fun might be got out of the Seer fish. 

 The matter wants developing. 



H. writes : '" I caught a couple at Ponany, and I never saw finer 

 running. I do not think I exaggerate in saying they leaped 8 feet out 

 of the water at times. They were 15 -pounders." The writer, be it 

 remembered, is no tyro, easily exhilarated, but an old salmon fisher, 

 and otherwise a mighty hunter. 



The Seer fish is Cybiiim, of which there are five species in the 

 Indian Seas, attaining some of them 3 and 4 feet in length. They are 

 excellent eating. Their mouth is full of very formidable teeth. They 

 are a sea, not an estuary fish. 



It should be remembered that Seer are not always present. They 

 do not make their appearance till a month or so after the close of the 

 monsoon, when they follow up the little fish frequenting the rivers. 

 The simplest way to ascertain when they are in, is by having them 

 for breakfast from the fish market, for the natives net them as soon as 

 they come. 



Seer, and, I believe, other fish, are caught off the Indian coasts 

 much after the manner of mackerel in England. A crude imitation 

 of a fish is made to shape out of the white kernel of the cocoanut, 

 and placed on a big hook, about the size of No. 10/0 Limerick, or 

 out of white rag; and three long lines thus baited are trailed well 

 behind the vessel as she sails, one from each arm of the yard, and 

 one from the mast head. They are thus kept well apart out of danger 

 of tangling. A bridle or connecting line, one from each of these lines 

 to the deck, makes it easy to tell if there is a fish on, and to pull the 

 line in so as to have it and the fish on deck. This style of fishing 

 wants a good breeze. " It's the pace that kills " fish. This I give 

 from hearsay, not personal trial, for my " soul would sicken o'er the 

 heaving wave." 



Friends going home by P. and O. tell me that they have caught 

 fish in this way from the steamer. They did nothing in the deep sea, 

 but in those parts of the Red Sea where they ran near land or rocky 

 shallows they killed big fish in spite of the jeers of incredulous fellow 

 passengers. The hook about the size of No. 10/0 Limerick was on 

 thick wire, the body weighted with lead and covered with white rag, 

 the wings and tail being of the same. 



But splendid sport though estuary fish give you at times, I cannot 



THE ROD IN INDIA. S 



