INTRODUCTION 23 



are often shy on the brightest days ; on 

 the other hand, it is in clear, bright 

 weather that the best mahseer are caught. 

 General Morton shares this opinion of 

 the best mahseer weather, though Colonel 

 Deane adds that on these bright days he 

 never made a good bag of mahseer, unless 

 there was also a breeze. As regards at 

 any rate the normal feeding habits of the 

 two fish under notice, there is evidently 

 much to be said for Colonel Bairnsfather's 

 theory. He quaintly adds in further 

 support of his view that mahseer might 

 have to wait a long time for a dull day in 

 India, while in some seasons trout in 

 England would run serious risk of death 

 from starvation if they were to refuse 

 their food until the sun shone. The chief 

 objection to this theory, in its practical 

 application to deciding the chances of 

 success, is the difficulty of determining 

 what actually is the normal weather of 

 some countries. If we take England, for 

 instance, it is clear that the normal, or at 

 any rate average, weather varies during 



