MAHSIR or Maha-air, literally great-head, the native name of species of Barhus (carp); B. macrocephalus, M'Cl.; B. mesa!, Ruch. Ham.; B. tor, Ruch. Ham. ; and B. Neilli, Day. They afford good sport to amateur fishermen, and they are good eating. Voracious as an English pike, many a one is taken with his own specks while spinning in the heavy rapids of the Upper Brahma putra, the Ganges, and the Tohce river in Jummoo territory. They will eat every fish they can swallow, but love change of food, rising greedily at all large and gaudy flies, natural and artificial, and will also take wild fruits and sweet pastes, when the angler is trying for other fish. The nuthsir pulls and rushes very violently at first, and then moves down sulkily to the bottom, where he will remain for hours together if not opposed; it swarms in all the mountain streams of India, when they retain water in the hot season ; the Ganges, Jumna, and Brahmapntra hold the largest ; next, the great rivers of the Panjab ; but this fish is often met with running to a huge size in small streams with deep pools.
The Indian mahsir are only to be caught from dawn to eleven, or from late in the afternoon till dusk. Its favourite haunts are in the rocky fast nesses of rapid rivers flowing from the hills. Mahsir run not unfrequently to 40 lbs., and even 50 lbs., and show more sport than a salmon. When the rod is stiff, the first pull on the tackle is great. Unlike the salmon and the trout, the mahsir, except under peculiar circumstances, is only to be taken in clear water ; and in clear water, under cloudless skies, the angler must make himself and his tackle as little conspicuous as possible. Like all fish that inhabit rough water, it is, of course, extremely vigorous ; and, as it runs out the line over a rocky bottom, the angler is very likely to be `broken.' The mahsir does not hold out so long as the salmon, but the fight while it lasts is more exciting, the first struggles being more violent, and the rush more impetuous. The difficulty of playing it may be conceived from the fact that the length of line which Mr. Thomas recommends is 120 yards, -- some authorities, indeed, prescribe 250 yards,—and be admits that with the lesser quantity it is at least possible that an active fish may get to the end of the tackle. The strain upon the reel may be tremend ous. As a specimen of the sport the mahsir give, we may refer to an article extracted from the Madras Times ; it was where the Darrung, in its lower course, flows through a plain, and the presence of =hair had not been even sus pected. But, chancing to camp for the night on
a sandbank, the sportsmen heard heavy fish jumping in the darkness. Next morning they tried their luck, and caught or lost monster after monster. When one of the party had his hands full, another would go by in a boat, fast to a fish that was towing him along as if he had been whaling in the Arctic Seas. There is the excite ment of danger, too, when fishing from what does duty for a boat in some of the mountain rivers. The frail craft is a wickerwork basket, slighter than the Welsh coracle, although at least as buoyant.
The teeth in the throat of the mahsir seem unusually powerful. They are required to be so to crush fresh-water molluscs and large crabs, Ampullaria glauca, Paludina Bengalensis, one of Unio species, Limnea stagnalis, Planorbis Indicus, P. Coromandelina.
Fish also form a large portion of their food. The gall-bag is large, and is much prized by the country people as a remedy in cases of stomach ache, cholera, and puerperal fever. When the south-west monsoon commences, the rivers are at once in flood, and continue so for four months, subsequently diminishing by slow degrees. While in flood, the mahsir abounds most at the heads of the rivers; the hider up they are, the more advanced their roe add milt generally was, and lower down there was scarcely a mahsir to be found at the same time, though they are well known to abouncy /ere later it• the year.
Mahsir fishingl it which the Dan is so cele brated, is always if •st sueceseful fter rain. The Ganges at Hard% is the 'beau.ide?.I of an Indian mahsir stream. t river,, before it enters the plains, stands in •tie first rank as regards this species, five or six brace of which, weighing 60 or 70 lbs. each, may be killed by a good hand in a good day.
The most sport is had and the finest specimens are taken with a paste made of coarse flour and coarse sugar, kneaded with ghi and a little chopped cotton, also with the ripe fruit of Ficus Indica. It frequents sacred ghats and steps of temples, the Pind Puja, with its balls of rice, flour offer ings, and Ficus fruits being greatly attractive. Large specimens (up to 20 lbs.) are taken about the temples at Hardwar, in Upper Assam, at Bagesur in the Sundah, and in other parts approaching the mountains. This fish, after a short time, with all the cunning of the carp species, evades the hook, flattening the paste gradually with his nose, and it is then sucked off in fragments.