5 o 4 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



covered with forest jungle. The General made some very 

 pretty sketches of this and other parts of the river. 



The Cossyah boats are very light, broad in the beam, have 

 a very small false keel, are safe and easily propelled. I went 

 up stream as far as I could, without getting a run ; I was 

 trolling with a spoon-bait, but coming back at a rapid I 

 struck a fish ; we were carried down at such a rate the boat 

 could not be stopped till we got into smooth water again, 

 by which time my fish was dead. It was spotted something 

 like a trout, and 2 Ibs. in weight. I then passed the village 

 and our camp and four rapids, and to the extremity of the 

 gorge, where there was a weir, without a run ; but on my way 

 back I caught two, 3^ and ij Ibs each. In the gorge itself I 

 heavily weighted the line and trolled very deep ; I was using 

 a spoon of the size of a large gravy spoon, treble gut, spinning 

 tackle, and one of Farlow's best mahseer rods ; at last I felt a 

 tug and a half, and more than 70 yards of line out of 120 was 

 carried out. I got the boat to a sand-bank, and landed to 

 play it ; it fought me for half-an-hour without allowing me 

 a glimpse of it. The morning sun was full on my face, and 

 the perspiration running down all but blinded me. I gradually 

 drew the fish into shallow water, and could note its every 

 movement. It did all it could by lying down on its side and 

 rubbing its mouth into the sand to get rid of the hooks, but I 

 did not give it much liberty and it did not succeed in its 

 efforts. At one time, a fish almost the image of it approached, 

 and my monster went at him open-mouthed. General Blake 

 came up and looked on at the struggle, and after three- 

 quarters of an hour's hard fight I landed about the hand- 

 somest fish I ever caught. It weighed between 28 and 30 Ibs. 

 My weighing machine was only graduated to 20 Ibs., so we 

 had to cut the fish in two to weigh it. The two, after loss of 

 blood, entrails, etc., weighed over 28 Ibs. For the next trip I 

 got a proper fish scale showing up to 60 Ibs. Always weigh 

 a fish as soon after it is caught as possible it loses weight as 

 it dries up. We then had a bathe and went back to breakfast. 

 In the afternoon in the rapids I caught two, 4^ Ibs. each, and 

 one \ Ib. I then went through the gorge, and close to the 

 weir I caught a monster of 40 Ibs., but it did not give half the 



