A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



afterwards won him a well-earned V.C. availed him on this 

 occasion, and so one more great fish went to join the lost 

 legion, and one more fishing story was left minus the dry 

 proof always exacted by them that scoff. Yet, even at the risk 

 to which we fishermen are not insensible, I maintain that 

 this must have been an exceptional mahseer, for it was the 

 talk of the regiment at the time I joined. Moreover, the Colonel 

 was not a man given to exaggeration, and, seeing the fish at 

 close quarters, he stoutly declared that the 6 ft. i in. of 

 subaltern were, with reasonable margin, none too much to 

 cover it. The reader, therefore, bearing in mind that a 

 mahseer is, roughly, proportioned much as a salmon, can 

 form some sort of estimate of its probable weight. And at 

 that we must leave it. 



Yet surely the most amazing feature of this contest remains 

 to be told, and that is the bait which the mahseer, after much 

 reluctance to feed at all, had at last been induced to take. 

 This was a swallow ! Ordinary baits had failed signally ; 

 spoon, with minnows both natural and artificial, had been 

 tried without success ; and the old Colonel, with his hench- 

 man, sat, weary and despondent, on the bank. Suddenly 

 they noticed what appeared to be a fish of unusual size re- 

 peatedly coming to the surface of the water just below 

 a neighbouring bridge. Some swallows were skimming 

 the water at that spot, and whether the fish was actually 

 attracted by them or not, the incident gave the Colonel the 

 idea which proved an inspiration. The subaltern was told 

 off to shoot a swallow, and it was on this, fitted to a stout 



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