150 Don't. Chapt. xii. 



Don't be alarmed therefore at their tremendous prepara- 

 tions, but trust to stout gimp, and a salmon rod, with a 

 good length of line, and making your fish work as hard 

 as you dare for every inch of it. Do not waste a bit of 

 it by giving it too easily. The native fisherman may ex- 

 amine your tackle, and condemn it as too weak, and you 

 may be disposed to believe in him, because he has actually 

 killed the fish, and ought to know. Never mind that ; just 

 do with him the very same as you will probably do with 

 this book — namely listen to all his advice, and then don't 

 follow it. Only draw your own conclusions therefrom. 

 At the same time you need not be uncivil, or he will be- 

 come uncommunicative. Give him to understand that 

 you cannot help yourself that your tackle is not so good 

 as his, and that you must make the best of a bad job ; and 

 then when you land a fish nevertheless, he will be all asto- 

 nishment, and doubly anxious to show you there is still 

 "a thing or two" which he knows better than you; and 

 you may pick up many a useful wrinkle from the native 

 fishermen. 



The place to get the above mentioned fish is, wher- 

 ever in the estuaries, and within a mile or so of the sea, 

 there is a deep and strong run at the edge of a rock, or 

 stone jetty, or under a bridge; and in the same place you 

 are likely to get two perch-like sorts of estuary fish, which 

 you will find beautifully engraved in plate II. of Dr. Day's 

 Fishes of Malabar and Canara. They are Mesoprion sillaoo, 

 and Mesoprion rubellus, the former is called Yeri in Cana- 

 rese, and the latter Kemberi, or red Yeri. The former 



