proprietor preserves the fish, first-class sport can be had. A common
native poaching dodge is this: if some oil cake be thrown into the
water a few hours previous to your fishing, or better still, balls made
of roasted linseed meal, mixed with bruised leaves of the 'sweet
basil,' or _toolsee_ plant, the fish assemble in hundreds round the
spot, and devour the bait greedily. With a good eighteen-foot rod, fish
of from twelve to twenty pounds are not uncommonly caught, and will
give good play too. Fishing in the plains of India is, however, rather
tame sport at the best of times.

You have heard of the famous _mahseer_--some of them over eighty or a
hundred pounds weight? We have none of these in Behar, but the huge
porpoise gives splendid rifle or carbine practice as he rolls through
the turgid streams. They are difficult to hit, but I have seen several
killed with ball; and the oil extracted from their bodies is a splendid
dressing for harness. But the most exciting fishing I have ever seen
was--What do you think?--Alligator fishing! Yes, the formidable scaly
monster, with his square snout and terrible jaws, his ponderous body
covered with armour, and his serrated tail, with which he could break
the leg of a bullock, or smash an outrigger as easily as a whale could
smash a jolly-boat.

I must try to describe one day's alligator fishing.

When I was down in Bhaugulpore, I went out frequently fishing in the
various tanks and streams near my factory. My friend Pat, who is a keen
sportsman and very fond of angling, wrote to me one day when he and his
brother Willie were going out to the Teljuga, asking me to join their
party. The Teljuga is the boundary stream between Tirhoot and
Bhaugulpore, and its sluggish muddy waters teem with alligators--the