CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

 Apologia pro libro meo. 



JN OT a few lovers of the gentle art are condemned by 

 their calling to pass the best years of their existence in 

 India, sighing, amongst other things, for the banks of 

 Tweed, or Usk, or Bush, looking forward to the too far 

 distant time when furlough, or other favoring circum- 

 stance, shall take them home to the land where they may 

 again beguile the speckled beauties from the stream, or 

 once more do battle with the lordly salmon. To such it 

 may be a comfort to know that they need not wait so 

 long for the "good time coming," that there is as good 

 fishing to be had in India as in England; and to minister 

 such comfort to exiled anglers is my present philanthro- 

 pic object. 



I fancy there are not a few fishermen in India, good 

 fishermen too, who know well how to fill their baskets in 

 England, who are nevertheless entirely at a discount in 

 India. Indeed I have met such, and do not mind con- 

 fessing that I am myself a lamentable instance of that 

 distressed class, for whether or not I knew how to cir- 



