Liberia ^ 



the same impulse towards better things as had earlier turned 

 water-worms to insects and crustaceans to spiders. 



The Mormyridce are a family of fresh-water fishes peculiar 

 to Tropical Atrica and the Nile, north of the southern tropic. 

 They are usually so singular in appearance as to arrest attention 

 even on the part of heedless people. The mouth aperture 

 is always small, and the snout is more or less prolonged, some- 

 times with a bold curve, so that the heads of such types as 

 Mormyrus and Gnathonemus resemble in outline an elephant, an 

 ant-eater, a curlew, or a horse. At the extremity of the snout 

 there is, below the mouth aperture in some ot these fish, a 

 hook-like finger ot cartilage. The Mormyrids have exceedingly 

 large and heavy brains (tor fish), and are furnished with an 

 electrical organ of weak power formed out of the muscles 

 in the vicinity of the tail. 



Several Characinid fish such as Hydrocyon attain to a 

 considerable size in the St. Paul's River, the Lota, and the 

 Cavalla. The Hydrocyon has a slight outward resemblance to 

 a large salmon, but has very tormidable tusk-like teeth. The 

 Carp family is represented by two species of barbel, and the 

 Cithlida^ a group so characteristic ot the lakes and rivers of 

 Africa, have at least six types in Liberia, ot which perhaps two 

 are peculiar to that region. 



As regards marine and estuarine forms, it may be saici 

 that the Liberlan coasts constitute one ot the best fisheries in 

 West Africa, though of course nothing like so famous as the 

 Sahara coast between Cape Blanco and the Rio de Oro. The 

 best fishing season is probably between November and February. 

 There is, no doubt, a certain migration in the sea fish of the 

 Atlantic, dependent either on seasons of the year or the set of 

 currents. Although most of the Liberian sea fish are common 

 to the Mediterranean and warm Atlantic regions and even the 



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