e caught with more certainty than fish by standing up to
the knees in water under a burning sun. Nevertheless, I have indulged
in this every now and then, when out on a jungle trip, although I have
never started from home with such an intention. Seeing some fine big
fellows swimming about in a deep hole is a great temptation, especially
when you know they are grey mullet, and the chef de cuisine is short of
the wherewithal for dinner.

This is not infrequently the case during a jungle trip; and the tent
being pitched in the shade of a noble forest on the steep banks of a
broad river, thoughts of fishing naturally intrude themselves.

The rivers in the dry season are so exhausted that a simple bed of
broad dry sand remains, while a small stream winds along the bottom,
merely a few inches deep, now no more than a few feet in width, now
rippling over a few opposing rocks, while the natural bed extends its
dry sand for many yards on either side. At every bend in the river
there is of course a deep hole close to the bank; these holes remain
full of water, as the little stream continues to flow through them; and
the water, in its entrance and exit being too shallow for a large fish,
all the finny monsters of the river are compelled to imprison
themselves in the depths of these holes. Here the crocodiles have fine
feeding, as they live in the same place.

With a good rod and tackle there would be capital sport in these
places, as some of the fish run ten and twelve pounds weight; but I
have never been well provided, and, while staring at the coveted fish
from the bank, I have had no means of catching them, except by the most
primitive methods.

Then I have cut a stick for a rod, and made a line with some hairs from
my horse's tail, with a pin for a hook, baited with a shrimp, and the
fishing has commenced.

Fish and fruit are the most enjoyable articles of food in a tropical
country, and in the former Ceylon is rich. The seir fish is little
inferior to salmon, and were the flesh a similar color, it might
sometimes form a substitute. Soles and whiting remind us of Old
England, but a host of bright red, blue, green, yellow, and
extraordinary-looking creatures in the same net dispel all ideas of
English fishing.

Oysters there are likewise in Ceylon; but here, alas I there is a sad
falling off in the comparison with our well-remembered "native."
Instead of the neat little shell of the English oyster, the Ceylon
speci