App. B. Hints on reels. 251 



and friction on the rod itself. Another advantage was, 

 that by so doing one was enabled to prevent the line 

 hanking in the reel by pressing one's fingers against the 

 line. This plan was effective, but not always agreeable, 

 as I found to my cost, occasionally having had the tips 

 of my fingers blistered. While on the subject of reels, 

 I might mention that no reels of English manufacture 

 that I have ever seen have hard enough metal in the cog 

 or cog-wheel of the check. I was using on this fishing 

 expedition a new reel of Farlow's, and in six days the 

 teeth of the cog wheel had almost disappeared, the space 

 between the plates being filled with brass filings. In a 

 reel intended for Mahseer fishing, all the parts that have 

 to bear friction should be made of well tempered steel. 

 At sunrise next day I again tried the pool, but did 

 not even get an offer ; so I strolled up the river, attended 

 by my shikari — who, by the bye, was quite new at this 

 kind of sport. He took to it very keenly, however, and 

 soon became very handy at landing fish, which was done 

 in a way rather surprising to a man accustomed only to 

 the gaff or landing net. When the fish is nearly ex- 

 hausted, the man walks quietly into the water, gets, be- 

 hind the fish, gently runs his hands along his back until 

 they reach his gills, then slips his thumbs into the gills, 

 and lifts the fish out of the water. This mode of capture 

 sounds very simple, and it is so if the fish does not see 

 the man; but if he does, off he goes for another run. 

 Mahseer have no dread of being handled ; they keep per- 

 fectly quiet during the time the man runs his fingers 



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