4 Pisciculture indebted to Anglers. Chapt. i. 



is a close observer of piscine nature, and not unfrequently 

 of insect nature too, and therefore likely to bring more 

 experience tban others to the furtherance of the object. 

 If in my official report on Pisciculture in South Canara 

 I have been able to give any information about the habits 

 of the mahseer, its food, its time, manner, and place, of 

 spawning, and the consequent dangers to which its fry 

 are exposed, and the protection that can be afforded 

 them, it must honestly be confessed that it is entirely to 

 my fishing rod that I owe it. These fish live in such deep 

 and strong waters, among so many rocks and snags, that 

 they are not approachable by the net till the rivers have 

 subsided in the dry season, and the fish, formerly spread 

 all over. the river, have congregated into the fewer re- 

 maining pools. It is obvious therefore that if net-caught 

 specimens had been the only ones available, conclusions 

 on their habits would necessarily have been formed on 

 data very much limited as regards both locality and time ; 

 limited in fact to places and periods which my rod proved 

 would have given no information at all, for the net-caught 

 fish would have been only those captured in the lower 

 waters and in the dry season, whereas my rod showed 

 that it was in the higher waters that they spawned, and 

 that they had completed that operation before the dry 

 season. By the friendly aid of my rod only was I able 

 to take mahseer at intervals over several months, and in 

 both the upper and lower waters of the rivers. The 

 native anglers are very poor hands at catching the mah- 

 seer, and I should have leaned on a broken reed indeed 



