Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-12-27
Indian Fishes.

ats great lakes ana MYERS, would he q
famous, place for fresh-water fish, but
such is not the case. There are fishes,
indeed, in the big tanks, or lakes.
(which for size would put the heaviest
J pike or lake trout at home to shame;
but Indian tanks are most unhshable.
They are choked with water-lillies and
with a dense underground of weeds, in
which it is as hard to find fish as the
proverbial needle in the bundle of hay.
The natives often spear the large fish
entangled in the weeds by torchlight,
but lake fishing, for a European, is
senerallySa mistake. There are per-
80. s~haps, only two tan CLING fishes worth
the dame in Hindostan; one is thesf11ah-
= seer. a kind of carp. and the other the In
dian trout. found only in the north of
India, and similar to the English brook
trout, only that the spots on the Indian
fish are blue not red. 1have seen NAH
seer's head in a museum, of which it
was said the fish it belonged to weighed
eighty-four pounds. In the northern
.. rivers, such as the Jhelum, the mahseer
affords good sport, but it is very pc
cuiar fish. as the modes of fishing for it
will show. In some rivers it will take
a salmon-fiy. and in others it will only
take the spoon. In Nerbudda it is
less to fish with either of these, for the
mahseer will only take gram - the
pea that horses are fed upon. nsIn one
SIS of the rivers of Central India the red
8 . berries of the Indian fig tree are y kill
s 81 ing bait, and below the iairsoppa
4" Fails, on the West Coast 1.-THE highest in
India), a piece of p,antain has been
found effective. Misunderstanding in the
South, however. is tedious work. The
rivers often. run through dense and
feverish jungles. and the glare off the
water is binding. The fish itself when
* caught is no better than any other carp.
$ for the table though Keen fishermen
Eare enthusiastic about mahseer head
a. a,fd Shoulders with oyster sauce. There
is only one fish in India that will per-
asstently take fly but unfortunately,
though pretty. silvery, dace-like fish
it is never bigger than >sprat. This
and roach abound in every Indian pond
and puddle L have even caught them
with a black gnat in drinking wells,
where by the way, they greatly inn
- prove the quality OF the water. Murrel.
- Enough, is the conlnaonest fire sh-water
- Sish sold in India. 1t is a hideous beast
like a flattened eel, and with a serrated
kind of ridge, or NAME down the back.
Twas once fishing with that poa hing
continuance. an otter board on an IL
dian tank. when L caught on the long
line of hooks murrel, an eel. a frog,
and water snake! The snake was
-,.t hooked through the body-foul. Muir
rel grow to an immense size in the lakes.
have seen one basking on the surface
which myself and q friend mistook for
an alligator. The flesh, to my taste, is
concentrated essence of mud.
The great rivers of India. of course,
contain a great numberof fishes; some
of them specialties, the Hooghly, In
dus. Godavery and kistus. The Indus
Is said to have the finest fish for the ta-
4 ble of a1l--the pullah. This fish is
s caught by men swimming with the
breast resting on an earthenware vessel:
( They push a hand-net before Them and
soon fill the jar with fish. In the
Hooghly they catch the mango fish,
which some say owes its delicate flavor
to the floating corpses in the river In
the Godavery they have a fish called
As regularly as the salmon. Twas once
caught by this fish something like it.
friend in boat put me. with my
:. bamboo rod. on pinnacle of rock out
in the GOdavery River, and IN the mid
die of Il reyerie or. perhaps. a siesta,
produced by ill-luck. a big fish tugged
The rod, and then myself after it, into
twenty feet of water. Neither rod nor
fish was ever seen again But the guam
titles of fish in these great rivers are in
credible | have myself seen several
carloads of fine fish of all kinds taken
out of single pond in the hot season,
and when the river is pretty well dried
down. Such fish are chiefly used for
their roe. The natives make a kind of
,cayiare from it which is far from nasty.
- The rivers of the Malay Peninsula, how
ever are the most wonderful rivers for
fish That know Of The most extraor-
dinary-looking fishes, and fishes OF the
most brilliant colors, are to, be had
f there. and all day hong the aligators
may be seen busily employed among
them, as the long trains of bubbles on
the surface very well denote. But it is
sufficient to look at the indigenous
angler to perceive at a glance that India
can be no anglers Paradise according
to our views of fishing. The aboriginal
angler is usually grandfather, most
probably pensionedsepoy He squats
on his hams by the margin of pond,
aud he squats thus from morn till dewy
eve like the crane he resembles He
Fhas'the crane trick too. Of stirring up
the mud now and then to attract the
fish, only the crane does it with one leg.
-.55 and he uses the point of his bamboo
wand for the purpose. He has couple
of linen bags round his neck; one full
of dough and worms. and the other full
of the sprats he has caught His fam
lily probably send the old man out to
get rid of him but he looks as happy as
any one may be expected to do under
the circumstances.-LondonG Graphic.