CHAPTER III. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAHSEER. 



"I in these flowery meads would be ; 

 "These crystal streams should solace me; 

 "To whose harmonious bubbling noise 

 "I with my angle would rejoice." — 



Izaak Walton. 



IT may be interesting to some that a few words should 

 here he introduced on the natural history of the Mahseer. 

 It is classed as a malako pterygian, or soft spined fish 

 (from the Greek malacos, soft, and pterygion, a fin), in con- 

 trary distinction to the akantho pterygians (from the Greek 

 acantha, a spine and pterygion a fin) or fish with rays or 

 spines in their fins which are hard, bony, and thornlike, 

 spikes, as in the perch and stickle-back, and which are apt 

 to give the unwary handler a very awkward prick. No 

 such consequences need however be apprehended from 

 the spines of the Mahseer, which are soft and grizzly, as 

 in the English roach, carp, and tench. The Mahseer is a 

 carp, though as we shall see hereafter very different in 

 size, flavor, strength, activity, and so forth, from his ig- 

 noble namesake in England, or rather from the fish that 

 we have been accustomed from our boyhood to call the 

 carp, as if there was not a very large family of them. 

 So if you like it better, you can call him a barbel. 



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