Au6. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AaiitOtJLTttRIl^t. 
THE "MASHEER" IN NORTHERN INDIA. 
Local fishermen have heard of the Mah- 
seer, if they have not all seen it ; and al- 
though there liave been many proposals in 
the past to introduce tiie fish into our 
streams from India, we do not think that 
any have been successfully carried out. It 
may interest members of our Fishing Club 
and other sportsmen, however, to learn 
that sportsmen in Northern India have 
been obliged to take steps to protect the 
Mahseer from extinction in the rivers 
of the Punjab, where they have been 
systematically netted for years at all 
seasons, with disastrous effects on the sup- 
Ely. The Giri river is nominally preserved 
y the Sirmoor Pishing Club ; and as the 
income of the Club had for several years 
fallen short of the expenditure— probably 
through the forgetfulness which obtains 
here, too, on the part of many members to pay 
their subscriptions,— the Committee resorted 
to the extraordinary expedient of letting port- 
ions of the river to netting contractors ! As 
was to be expected, the contractors went 
beyond the contract, a nd outsiders joined in 
the game, until the river was almost de- 
pleted. Netting has now been prohibited, the 
Olub has improved its financial position, and 
the Sirmoor State, to which the Clul) pays 
heavy rental, has been asked to lend a help- 
ing hand to stop poaching. 
The river Poonch, which ouce had a large 
stock of the largest Mahseer in India, is in 
a worse state ; and there, writes an Indian 
contempdrary :— 
" For the past two yeari? a contractor ha.s come 
from Jhelutn, armed with a permit signed by soma 
local official in the Jamnui State, and lias proceeded 
to net the whole of tlie pools and runs between 
Tangrob and Nar, a portion of the river in which 
nine- tenths of the mahseer in the Poonch hibernate. 
With the last closing showers of the monsoon the 
fish drop down from tiie upper waters, and the long 
reaches below Nar, the Fota pools, the famous 
vater below the fantastic clifl's of P'dak, and, above 
ill!, the Jnngoo pool close to Tangrot, are their 
refuges. In the cold weather the Jnngoo pool pre- 
«?nts a wonderful spectacle, being filled with thou- 
smds of huge iiiasheer in a semi-comatose state, 
packed as close as sardines. They begin to assemble 
in September, and by the end of October the pool is 
full. Late in February, or more usually about the 
middle of March, the hrst slight spates come down 
the Poonch, and this is the signal tor the mahseer 
at Jungoo to begin to work upwards. The same 
state of things holds good in the other pools of the 
lower portion of the Poonch. When, therefore, a 
band of men armed with nets, and with unlimited 
time at their disposal, proceed to clean out pool 
after pool, sparing nothing, it is easy to conjecture 
the enormous damage done to the river. During 
the summer time the large malisaer would probably 
succeed in breaking all ordinary nets ; but in the 
winter they are overtaken by a strange species of 
lethargy, and lie for days together at the bottom 
of the pools without moving." 
The Mahseer weighs up to .50 lb and affords 
excellent sport, and we can sympathise with 
those who complain of operations which 
sweep one pool after another of all fish. 
No less than 200 m'aunds of Mahseer are said 
to have been taken by nets out of two pools 
13 
last winter. The local Government should 
help onr sportsmen to establish the Mahseer 
in some of our Ceylon rivers? 
" MATE " TEA. 
{From the Enci/clopwdia Brifanica.) 
Mate, or Paraguay Tea, consists of the 
dried leaves of Ilex" paraguayensis, St Hil.,* 
•an evergreen shrub or small tree belonging 
to the same natural order as the common 
holly, a plant to which it bears some resem- 
blance in size and habit. The leaves are from 
6 to 8 inches long, short-stalked, oblong, 
wedge shaped, rounded at upper end, and 
finely toothed at the margin. The small 
white flowers grow in forked clusters in the 
axils of the leaves ; the sepals, petals, and 
stamens are four in number ; and the berry is 
4 seeded. The plant grows abundantly in 
Paraguay, Corrientes, Chaco, and the South 
of Brazil, forming woods called yerbales. One 
of the principal centres of the mate industry 
is the Villa Real, a small town above Asun- 
cion on the Paragujiy river; another in the 
Villa de San Xavier, in the district between 
the rivei'S Uruguay and Parana. 
Although mate appears to have been used 
from time immemorial by the Indians, the 
Jesuits were the first to attempt its cultiva- 
tion This was commenced at their branch 
missions in Paraguay and tlie province of Rio 
Grande de San Pedro, where some plantations 
still exist and furnish the best tea that is 
made. From this circumstance the names 
Jesuits' tea, tea of the Missions, St Bartho- 
lomew's tea, &c., are sometimes applied to 
mate. Under cultivation the quality of the 
tea improves, but the plant remains a small 
shrub with numerous stems, instead of form- 
ing, as in the wild state, a tree with a rounded 
head. Prom cultivated plants the leaves are 
gathered every two or three years, that in- 
terval being necessary tor restoration to 
vigorous growth. The collection of mate is, 
however, chiefly effected by Indians employed 
for that yiurpose by merchants, who pay a 
money consideration to Government for the 
privilege. 
When a yerbal or mate wood is found, the 
Indians, who usually travel in companies 
of about twenty-live in number, build wig- 
wams and settle down to the work for about 
six months. Their first operation is to prepare 
an open space, called a tatacua, about G feet 
squar-e, in which the suface of the soil is 
beaten har4 and smooth with mallets. The 
leafy branches of the mate ar» then cut down 
and placed on the tatacua, where they under- 
go a preliminary roasting from a fire kindled 
around it. An arch of poles, or of hurdles, 
is then erected above it, on which the mate is 
placed, a fire being lighted underneath. This 
])art of the process demands some care, since by 
it the leaves have to be rendered brittle enough 
to be easily pulverised, and the aroma has to 
be developed, the necessary amount of heat 
being only learned by experience. After 
* Mr J Miers has proved that / cuitihensis, 1 f/iganfea, 
I ovalifolia I Euiiiboldtiana, and I nicjro/nmctata, be- 
sides several varieties of therae species, are in geneial 
use for preparing mate, 
