20 



is a translation of parts of a letter narrating the occurrences. 

 It was from Mr. and Mrs. Koch to Mr. Bam, and was kindly 

 handed to me by Prof. Schwartz. " In the year 1880, a few 

 months before the flood (apparently from the river flowing 

 into the bay), a species of large mussel, of the size and shape of 

 a Cafhr bean, white, blue grey and yellow in colour, was cast 

 up alive on the beach. These Mussels had not been seen before 

 nor were they ever found subsequently. On the evening of the 

 20th December, 1880, some native fishermen procured eels, 

 which were unknown. On the following morning these were 

 again found, and other fish were seen, the natives, however, 

 fearing to make use of them on account of the peculiar colour 

 of the water. At nine o'clock of the same day, it being spring 

 tide, Mrs. Koch, along with the wife of Mr. Bauman, the 

 missionary, visited the beach and saw hundreds of living and 

 struggling (" zappelende ") fish cast up on the sand by each 

 wave. They were of all sizes and kinds, and included large 

 Dog-fish. This continued for three days ; the fish lay as far up 

 as the sand dunes, a half to three quarters of an hour's walk 

 behind the houses (there is a wide stretch of level ground, 

 occasionally inundated by high tide, between the houses at 

 Walfish Bay and the sand dunes, situated some distance 

 further inland), and were heaped to a height of one or two feet. 

 On Christmas eve it was almost impossible to proceed to the 

 church on account of the odour, and it was scarcely possible 

 to walk about without stepping on the dead fish, which lay 

 between the houses close up to the doors. The Lewis Alfred 

 was in the bay at the time, but the water was so blood-red 

 (" bliitig") *and smelt so badly that she left for Sandwich 

 Harbour, where fewer fish had been cast up. The stench 

 became so great that it would undoubtedly have caused illness 

 had it not been for the South-west wind, which springs up 

 almost every afternoon. It was useless to think of attempting 

 to bury those millions of fish. Some English and Swedes 

 attempted this in the case of the larger fish, but the fish, 

 specially Harders, continued to be cast up anew. Everything 

 of a white colour became black, even the deck houses of the 

 Lewis Alfred, which had returned after three weeks to dis- 

 charge her cargo. The odour of the dead fish had been felt on 

 board at Usapf . After a few months the skeletons on the shore 

 in the neighbourhood of the lagoon formed a pile five to six 

 feet in height. Then began a plague of flies. It was only 

 possible to drink a cup of coffee by keeping the hand in constant 



* Mr. Bam remarks with reference to the colour of the water : " When I saw 

 it it was inky, and must have been much darker in hueiprevious to my visit, 

 which was several months after the occurrence." 



