90 In the Heart of Africa 



ran right in front of our camp. Our travelling companions, 

 who remained on the shore in momentary expectation of a 

 terrible spectacle, sent ironical felicitations and benedictions after 

 us. I then lit the fuse with my lighted cigar, and flung out 

 the bomb as far away from the boat as possible. A small 

 cloud of smoke which rose, hissing softly, from the surface of 

 the lake marked the spot where it fell. It was high time then 

 to get a good distance away from the gruesome bomb. Ali 

 rowed like a racer, and, making a final spurt, in a twinkling 

 we had got about a hundred metres from the smoke. A breath- 

 less moment elapsed. Then a dull, weak-sounding report was 

 heard, a little fountain spurted up from the spot in question, 

 and all was over. Loud bursts of laughter relieved our com- 

 panions on the banks from their breathless suspense. No one 

 had been blown up ; we all stood firmly on our legs, and only 

 the faintest concussion had been noticed. We rowed leisurely 

 to the scene of the explosion, and gradually collected all the 

 fish which had been driven to the surface. There were from 

 one to two dozen percine cichlidce, very frequent in Africa ; 

 all small specimens a few inches in length. They lay motionless 

 on the water, their air-bladders protruding from their mouths, 

 or swam round in circles, breathing with great difficulty. The 

 dark-coloured males exhibited beautiful bronze-green cross- 

 stripes, and the females carried their young fry of five or six in 

 their mouths, a habit peculiar to this species and intended as 

 a protection from danger. 



This very harmless explosion had quite solved our doubts 

 as to the dangers attending such proceedings. The fact that 

 only a very small number of little fish had been killed by a 

 single bomb led me in future always to use two or three bound 

 together with wax-cloth. Not until then was I enabled to secure 

 any big fish. The scurried flight from the point of concussion 

 had also proved itself unnecessary, and so we afterwards con- 

 tented ourselves with leisurely rowing twenty to thirty metres 

 further away, and there quietly awaiting events. It is true that 

 the fountain tossed up from the smooth surface by means of 



