134 FISHERMEN'S WEATHER 



correspondents with experience of Indian 

 fishing refer to a habit which, according 

 to native report, the mahseer has of rising 

 to the surface and swallowing the hail- 

 stones, even, it is said, to the extent of 

 dying of a surfeit of this cold food. 

 General Morton, without going so far 

 as to confirm the native belief, admits 

 that he has seen mahseer show them- 

 selves very freely during showers of hail, 

 so that, at any rate, whether they eat it 

 or not, it does not put them down. 

 Indeed, Colonel Deane has made a good 

 bag of them, with fly or fly-spoon, during 

 a heavy storm of rain and hail. 

 Mr. Buxton Mr. Buxton, whose fancy for dry 

 dislikes hail. wea ther as well as dry-fly has already 

 been illustrated, dislikes hail, and not 

 without good cause, as the following 

 reminiscence will show : 



" On the Kennet, some time ago, in 

 early June, I was catching fish freely, 

 when suddenly a heavy hailstorm came 

 on, churning up the water ; and though 

 the rise of the fly was unaffected, not a 



