FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS. 13 
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pleasant place, Out here many men, in fact nearly everyone, shoots, and 
not many men fish ; and so it was in those days, If you had asked ninety- 
nine men out of a hundred what fishing there was to be had about Karachi, 
they would probably have replied in that cocksure manner peculiar to Eng- 
lishmen—“ Fishing? Why none!” And yet if they had only taken the 
trouble to think a little about it, that same common sense which distin- 
guishes our countrymen would probably soon have convinced them that 
they had made a mistake, 
Tt is altogether against nature to suppose that this land, which teems with 
life throughout, from the very highest forms down to the lower grades of 
reptiles, should contain waters barren of fish life, nor, in fact, is itso. The 
Indian waters everywhere are just as prolific as the Jands, and wherever the 
lower forms of fish life abound there will be found also the higher forms, 
in the shape of the more voracious and piscivorous species, which live and 
thrive upon their weaker brethren, and which, to the angler and the sports- 
man, are the objects of continual solicitude, Karachi is no exception to 
this general rule. Its placid and sheltered waters are the home of many of 
the smaller species of fish and crustaceans, and,as a natural consequence, 
are, in due season, the haunt and resort of many of the more predacious 
varieties. The one oftenest met with, and the one with which [intend to 
associate this place, is a fish well known out here under numerous names, 
Locally it is known as ‘“‘dangara;” in Bengal it is called “begti,” better 
known to Europeans perhaps as “‘nair” or “cock up;” and recognised by 
science as Lates calcarifer. 
Tt hath been said by them of old time that the “bahmin” and the “ dan- 
gara” are inseparable, and that where you find the one, you will most 
assuredly find the other. Since they are both estuary fish, I am not pre- 
pared to deny that there may be places where both are found together, but 
my own experience does not lead me to think that itis necessarily, or aven 
often so. In Bombay, where the bahmin at certain times love to congregate, 
it is rarely that one catches a “ dangara”’ when hahmin fishing ; and per con- 
tra, in Karachi and in Cochin, which are the two best places I know of for 
“ dangara,” bahmin are certainly not common. I do not know that I have 
ever caught a bahmin in Karachi, though I have caught most fish there, and 
the reason for this, in my opinion, is that the tidal stream in Karachi Har- 
bour is never strong enough to suit the dashing “Indian salmon,” nor is the 
bottom of a sufficiently rugged and rocky nature to induce this fish to haunt 
the spot. But to return to the “dangara.’ He isa large and powerful fish 
of the family Percide. Deep in the body, and with large scales of a handsome 
dark golden bronze colour, he is the personification of strength combined 
with pertinacity ; he loves the entrance to back-waters and creeks, and is 
generally found feeding on a rising tide. On nearly all the muddy banks of 
the creeks about here, also in the upper waters of Bombay Harbour, and 
