216 
tainly be in such a plight, for he will find in it the minutest | 
instructions for his guidance, and there seems not a ¢vazt 
in the character of this and the other freshwater fishes 
to be ordinarily met with in India that has not been 
scanned and studied by its author with the intent of 
beguiling these fishes to their own destruction. 
Of the fish to be caught in Indian waters the best is 
the Mahseer (Bards tor). It is the best from the sports- 
man’s point of view, as it gives him most to do; for who 
that is a sportsman cares to haul up a dead pike on a 
night-line ? and who that is a sportsman but must care 
for a fish that can attack as follows ?>— 
“The Mahseer hasa greater means than our salmon of 
putting on steam, and has the habit of always putting it 
on at once, energetically and unsparingly. His first rush 
is a mighty one, no doubt; that once made, his strength 
is, in comparison with the northern fish, comparatively 
soon exhausted. Other rushes he will make, but his first 
is the dangerous one; then it is that the final issue of the 
campaign is practically decided. Be one too many for 
him then, and you may be grimly satisfied that all else he 
can do will not avail him ; you may count on making him 
your own. Then it is that you must wait upon him dili- 
gently. If you have not got all free, the connection between 
you and your new friend will be severed within a moment 
of your making each others acquaintance. If you should 
have carelessly allowed the line to have got a turn around 
the tip of your rod, or have let any slack near the hand 
become kinked ever so little, or twisted over the butt or 
hitched in the reel or a button, then it is that not one 
monient’s law is given you for the readjustment of such 
little matters. There is one violent tug, and an immediate 
smash ; 
«« © The waters wild go o’er your child, 
And you are left lamenting.’ 
Reader, it takes an eye and a hand, and tact and readiness 
of mind, as well as a rod and a line and a fly, to catch a 
salmon ; but it takes all these, and something more, to 
catch a Mahseer.”’ 
Although it is well known that a fisherman does not 
catch his fish for the pleasure of eating them—this being 
quite a secondary matter—still it is fair towards the 
Mahseer to mention that when in good condition they are 
excellent, so rich that one needs no condiment with them, 
so well flavoured as in this respect to occupy a rank 
between a salmon and a trout. The best size for flavour 
is between six and seven pounds; but they are good eating 
when from two to ten pounds in weight; under the former 
size they are too bony, over the latter too oily. 
The chapter on the natural history of this fish is one of 
the most interesting in the volume, and it is scarcely 
necessary to add that there are minute details of how to 
“circumvent”? him, of how to spin for him, and of how 
to tempt him with a fly, and of how, when, and where to 
fish for him. When we add that over one quarter of the 
volume is taken up with this fish, it will be evident at once 
that he ranks as a lord among the freshwater fishes of 
India; but we have full details also of the Carnatic Carp 
(Barbus carnaticus),a nearly allied species to the Mahseer, 
running to twenty-five pounds in weight, taking a fly, 
having a fancy for a No. 5 or 6 Limerick, and giving 
good sport. 
There are also excellent chapters on many much smaller 
fishes than thesé—fishes for light rods, and giving very 
enjoyable sport ; several, like the Black Spot, being 
dwellers in ponds. 
NATURE 
[ Fan. 5, 1882 
Some information is also given as to the attempts made 
to stock ponds in India, and there is a very full list given 
of fishing localities. The lithographs which accompany 
the volume are very good, and several of them are 
coloured. To the sportsmen of India this work will be 
quite indispensable and quite a boon, and further, to all 
interested in the resources of fan Empire presided over 
by our Queen, the volume will afford an insight into the 
importance of its freshwater fishes that they will find, we 
believe, nowhere else. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Book of the Black Bass: comprising its Complete Scien- 
tific and Life History; together with a Practical 
Treatise on Angling and Fly-Fishing, and a Full 
Description of Tools, Tackle, and Implements. By 
James A. Henshall, M.D. Illustrated. (Cincinnati : 
Robert Clarke and Co., 1881.) 
THE author in this volume endeavours, and we think 
succeeds, in giving to the Black Bass its proper place 
among the freshwater game fishes of North America ; and 
undoubtedly the reader will find himself taking an interest 
in this fish as he reads this enthusiastic account about it. 
No doubt the first and second chapters will be most 
tedious reading, and yet they are full of interest as show- 
ing how tangled may become the scientific nomenclature 
even of a well-known fish. As the sum and substance 
of these chapters we find the two species of the genus 
Micropterus, standing, the one as J/. dolomieu, and the 
other as J. sa/moides, and it is of these two respectively 
—the small-mouthed Black Bass and the large-mouthed 
Black Bass—that the author writes. Both species are 
very active, muscular, and voracious, with hard and 
tough mouths, are very bold in biting, and when hooked 
exhibit gameness and endurance second to no other fish. 
Both give off the characteristic musky odour when 
caught. They generally inhabit the same waters. These 
Black Bass are wholly unknown in the Old World, except 
where quite recently introduced. Their original habitat 
is remarkable for its extent, for with the exception of the 
New England States and the Atlantic seaboard of the 
Middle States, it comprises the whole of the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains, Ontario, and, last, 
Mexico. Of late years this distribution has been greatly 
extended. These fish are very prolific, and rapid growers 
where food is plentiful. In northern waters six to eight 
pounds is about the limit of their weight, but in Florida 
they are sometimes met with up to twelve and fourteen 
pounds. They have been several times imported into 
England, and we believe that those brought over in 1879 
at the expense of the Marquis of Exeter have succeeded 
well. The fisherman who reads the latter portion of this 
volume will find many pleasant anecdotes and stories in 
connection with the gentle art, and should he happen to 
frequent those waters where the Black Bass are to be 
found, he will get many a precious wrinkle which he 
might have otherwise not known. The author's parting 
injunction is, ‘Always kill your fish as soon as taken 
from the water, and ever be satisfied with a moderate 
creel. By so doing your angling days will be happy and 
your sleep undisturbed, and you and I and the fish we 
may catch can say— 
‘* «The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places.’ 
An Introduction to Determinants, with numerous Ex- 
amples. By William Thomson, M.A., B.Sc. (Edin- 
burgh: Jas. Thin, 1882.) 
THIS text-book is very accurately described by its title. 
It belongs to a class of which many examples have 
appeared on the continent for use in the secondary 
