54 Kinds of fish for bait. Chapt. v. 



On all grounds therefore I am for as few hooks and 

 as fine tackle as possible with the Mahseer. With some 

 other fish with which we shall have to do hereafter the 

 same necessity may not exist. 



Presuming then that I have contrived to seduce my 

 reader into a preference for a dead fish on fine tackle, 

 as being more natural and consequently better calculat- 

 ed to stand closer fish-eyed scrutiny in clear water than 

 any artificial bait, the next question that arises is whether 

 any particular sort of small fish is more killing than 

 another. This I have endeavoured to ascertain by identi- 

 fying the fish found in the several Mahseer killed'; but 

 their digestion is so marvellously rapid, that it is very 

 seldom indeed that the small fish there found are reco- 

 gnizable. Not only have their scales and fins almost 

 always disappeared; but their very shape has been lost. 

 Though I have once or twice recognized one of the dace- 

 like fish called Barbus sarana or i,n Canarese kijau, it does 

 not thence follow that there may not have been several 

 other sorts amongst the ones I could not make out. 

 Though I have seen the Mahseer taking these dace-like 

 fish freely in the natural state, it is no sequence that 

 they do not as freely take other fish, which I could not 

 see them take, simply because they are small fish that 

 inhabit the bottoms of rivers, and are consequently not 

 within sight. I cannot say therefore if the Mahseer have 

 a preference for any particular sort of small fish, and 

 as they seem to take them all alike, little caring which 

 is Csesar and which is Pompey, the question rather is 



