58 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



my arm, and slowly but steadily we won our 

 way across. '* Mihndu," I said, " if we had 

 slipped, we should have been drowned." ** Aur 

 kya ? " (What else ?) said old Mihndu rather sulkily. 



Another point in favour of mahser fishing is 

 that you frequently fish in beautifully clear 

 water, and see, therefore, more of the game. 

 It is a pretty sight to see your bait twirling away 

 far down-stream, and to see a big fish dash out 

 from the side of some rock and take it. 



Mahser fishing is also more of an adventure. 

 Much of the best of it is obtained in rapid streams 

 flowing through wild country, in which animal 

 life is abundant, or through the low hills, fringing 

 the outer Himalayas, where the scenery is very 

 beautiful and the camping very enjoyable. Some 

 of my fishing expeditions have been to me the 

 perfection of a holiday. 



Justice compels me to add that the sport is 

 precarious, and that a fishing expedition often 

 ends in failure. When a river is in flood and the 

 water is very discoloured, fishing is a hopeless 

 business, and you have to sit on the bank, like 

 Horace's rustic, and wait " dum defluit amnis " ; 

 and this is naturally very annoying. The fish, 

 too, are very capricious, and sometimes will not 

 take for days together, though all the conditions 

 appear to be perfect, so that you begin to wonder 

 if there are any fish in the river. The fish are 

 certainly migratory to some extent, and move 

 up and down the rivers in accordance with the 

 season ; and you may easily be too early or too 

 late for this migration at any particular point. 

 As Aziza, the Sopur fisherman, said to me once : 



