2 Pro bono publico. Chapt. i. 



cumvent a trout in England, I certainly could make no- 

 thing of the Mahseer in India, and lost all too much time 

 in learning the manners and customs of that oriental 

 gentleman. Sad indeed is the retrospect of golden op- 

 portunities lost ! "What would I have given to any one 

 that would then have put me in the way of getting at 

 them! To give this helping hand, the benefit of my little 

 experience, to brother anglers is my object in writing. It 

 is not that I have the assurance to think I am the right 

 man to undertake the task. On the contrary I know that 

 there are many who have enjoyed much better opportuni- 

 ties of sport in Indian waters, and who have consequently 

 more experience, as well as better leisure. They are the 

 men that ought to write a book on the subject, but they 

 do not, and it is not my fault that they do not. It is 

 not that I have nothing better to do to beguile the tedium 

 of a P. and 0. Steamer voyage back to India, though that 

 may be my opportunity for scribbling. It is that I have 

 an idea it is the sort of thing some fellow ought to do 

 out of purely philanthropic motives for his brother ang- 

 lers; and as no body else will do it, I suppose I must. It 

 seems so selfish to have discovered that there is right 

 good fishing to be had, and then to keep it to oneself. 

 In short, I cannot do it; so here goes. 



There may be some six hundred books or thereabouts 

 on fishing in general, but there is only one that I know of 

 on fishing in India, and that one I never had the good for- 

 tune to come across. The subject is scarcely overwritten 

 therefore in spite of the six hundred books aforesaid. 



