The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-24
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Indian Fishes.

1t might be supposed that India, with
its great lakes and rivers, would be
famous place for freah-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
pike or lake trout at home to shame;
but Indian tanks are most untishable.
They are ehoked with water-lillies and
with 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 European, is
generally a mistake. There are per-
haps, only two angling fishes worth
the name in Hindostan; one is the NAH
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. Ihaye seen NAH
seer's head in 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 a very pc
culiar fish, as the modes cf fishing for it
will show. In some rivers it will take
salmon-fly, and in others it will only
take the spoon. In Nerbudda it is use
less to fish with either of these, for the
mahseer will only take gram the
pea that horses aye fed upon. In one
of the rivers of Central India the red
h.1s Off ha Ind tpn l.
ing bait, and below the Gairsoppa
Falls, on the West Coast (the highest in
India), piece of plantain has been
found effective. Mahseer-fshing 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
are enthusiastic about mahseer head
and shoulders with oyster sauce. There
is only one fish in India that will per-
sistently 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 black gnat in drinking wells,
where, by the way, they greatly i'm
prove the quality OF the water. Murrel,
though, is the conmonest fresh-wateI
fish sold in India. 1t is a hideous beast
like fattened eel, and with a serrated
kind of ridge, or name, down the back.
| was once fishing with that poaching
oontrivance. an otter board on an II
dian tank, when 1 cauSht on the long
line of hooks murrel, an eel, frog,
and water snake! The snake was
hooked through the body-foul. Muir
rel grow to an immense size inthe lakes.
I have seen one basking on the surface
which myself and friend mistook for
an alligator The flesh, to my taste, is
concentrated essence of mud.
The great rivers of India. of course,
contain great number of fishes; some
of them specialties, as the Hooghiy, In
dus, Godavery and Kistus. The Indus
IS said to have the finest fish for the ia
BILE of all--the pullah. This fish is
caught by men swimming with the
breast resting on an earthenware vessel.
They push 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 i'll the river. In
the Godavery they have a fish called
the sable" which migrates to the sea
as regularly as the salmon. Twas once
caught by this fish OF something like it.
A friend in boat put me. with my
bamboo rod, on a pinnacle of rock out
in the Godavery kiver, and in the mid
| die of reverie or, perhaps, q siesta,
produced by ill-luck, 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. I 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 we'll dried
down. Such fish are chiefly used for
| their roe The natives make kind of
caviare 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 eytraor
dinary-looking fishes. and fishes of the
most brilliant coiors, are TO be had
| there, and all day long the alllgators
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 glance that India
can be no anglers Paradise according
to our views of fishing. The aboriginal
angler is usually grandfather, most
probably pensioned sepoy. He squats
on his hams by the margin of pond,
and he squats thus from morn till dewy
eve like the crane he resembles. He
has the cranes trick, too. of stirring up
tho mud now and then to attract the
fish, only the crane does it with one leg,
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. LONDON Graphic.
Railroad Travelling In Europe.