  Transients in the fission of highly excited nuclei are studied in the
framework of the Langevin equation. Time-dependent fission widths are
calculated which show that after the initial transients, a steady flow towards
the scission point is established not only for nuclei which have fission
barriers but also for nuclei which have no fission barrier. It is shown from a
comparison of the transient time and the fission life time that fission changes
from a diffusive to a transient dominated process over a certain transition
region as a function of the spin of the fissioning nucleus. Multiplicities of
prescission neutrons are calculated in a statistical model with as well as
without a single swoop description of fission and they are found to differ in
the transition region. We however find that the difference is marginal and
hence a single swoop picture of fission though not strictly valid in the
transition region can still be used in the statistical model calculations.
