20 Mahseer in all the Presidencies. Chapt. hi. 



The Mahseer has been more fished for in Bengal than 

 elsewhere, and it has thence grown to he the common idea 

 that it is a Bengal fish. But it is equally to be found in 

 the larger perennial rivers of the Madras and Bombay 

 Presidencies. I state this confidently, though I know 

 there are some who question our haying the Mahseer at 

 all in Southern rivers, because I have no mean authority 

 for it in Dr. Day, to whom I submitted stuffed specimens 

 of my captures in Canara, and he at once declared them 

 undoubted Mahseer, and recognized them as the.JBar-Jus 

 mosal, and Barbus tor of Buchanan, and I am of opinion 

 that there is yet a third unnamed Mahseer in the Canara 

 rivers, and perhaps a fourth. 



Except for the purpose of scientific distinction how- 

 ever there are slight differences, and for all practical 

 purposes even in their natural history, by which I mean 

 the history of their nature, or propensities and habits, 

 they may be treated as one and the same fish, for I have 

 not been able to find any difference in their habitat, food 

 or spawning. 



It would be foreign from the object of this little work 

 to give drawings of each Mahseer. The critical student 

 is much better referred to Dr. Day's books on the Carps 

 of India with plates and accurate descriptions. For the 

 angler I will present one drawing of a Mahseer so that 

 he may get a general idea of the sort of fish a Mahseer 

 is, for unless he is an observant man he may well catch 

 two or three sorts of Mahseer, and not know that he has 

 taken different fish. 



