21 



CHAPTER III. 



Those who have fished both for salmon and mahseer will 

 doubtless agree with me in thinking that they are nearly on 

 a par as far as sport is concerned. In its habits the mahseer 

 much resembles the salmon, except that it never migrates to 

 the sea, but in appearance it is very different. The mahseer 

 (Barhis Tor) of Himalayan rivers, which is said to belong to 

 the carp family, is a beautiful fish both in form and colour, 

 but in flavour it does not approach the salmon. Yet its firm 

 white flesh is by no means to be despised for the table. On 

 the back its hue is a dark olive-green, shaded off, on the sides 

 of a well-conditioned fish, into a golden orange, which merges 

 into pale pink and silvery white below. It has rather large 

 toothless jaws lined with a very tough membrane, so it re- 

 quires to be struck pretty hard to be properly hooked. When 

 I say struck, I mean that after the fish has hooked itself, as 

 it will do by its own weight, a good pull, without a jerk, is 

 necessary to drive home the barb into its leathern jaws. 

 Owing to this toughness of mouth, a mahseer when fixed is 

 seldom lost unless it breaks the tackle. This a big fish often 

 will do in its first plunge, when it sometimes has a way of 

 lashing its tail over the line. That crisis being safely over, 

 if your tackle is trustworthy, landing your fish is usually 

 only a matter of time and patience. Its strong teeth are set 

 far back in its gullet, and the stoutest tackle has a poor 

 chance if it gorges your lure beyond them. It cannot be 

 easily clipped, as its large round scales are so hard that the 



