ly runs to the water,
and crosses it by a succession of bounds, each of which appears to be
from the bottom. We thought the flesh good at first, but soon got tired
of it.

Great shoals of excellent fish come down annually with the access of
waters. The mullet ('Mugil Africanus') is the most abundant. They are
caught in nets.

The 'Glanis siluris', a large, broad-headed fish, without scales, and
barbed--called by the natives "mosala"--attains an enormous size and
fatness. They are caught so large that when a man carries one over his
shoulder the tail reaches the ground. It is a vegetable feeder, and in
many of its habits resembles the eel. Like most lophoid fishes, it has
the power of retaining a large quantity of water in a part of its great
head, so that it can leave the river, and even be buried in the mud of
dried-up pools, without being destroyed. Another fish closely resembling
this, and named 'Clarias capensis' by Dr. Smith, is widely diffused
throughout the interior, and often leaves the rivers for the sake of
feeding in pools. As these dry up, large numbers of them are entrapped
by the people. A water-snake, yellow-spotted and dark brown, is often
seen swimming along with its head above the water: it is quite harmless,
and is relished as food by the Bayeiye.

They mention ten kinds of fish in their river; and, in their songs of
praise to the Zouga, say, "The messenger sent in haste is always forced
to spend the night on the way by the abundance of food you place before
him." The Bayeiye live much on fish, which is quite an abomination to
the Bechuanas of the south; and they catch them in large numbers by
means of nets made of the fine, strong fibres of the hibiscus, which
grows abundantly in all moist places. Their float-ropes are made of
the ife, or, as it is now called, the 'Sanseviere Angolensis', a
flag-looking plant, having a very strong fibre, that abounds from
Kolobeng to Angola; and the floats themselves are pieces of a
water-plant containing valves at each joint, which retain the air in
cells about an inch long. The mode of knotting the nets is identical
with our own.

They also spear the fish with javelins having a light handle, which
readily floats on the surface. They show great dexterity in harpooning
the hippopotamus; and, the barbed blade of the spear being attached to
a rope made of the young leaves of the palmyra, the animal can not
rid himself of the canoe, attached to him in whale fashion