CENTRAL AFRICAN FISH. 479 



and fished with a live bait upon a set of treble hooks, 

 and used a large float. 



Presently the bait was seized by some monster and 

 the line broken. Replacing the hooks with a still 

 larger set, a " bayard " of about twelve pounds weight 

 was caught and two others of smaller size. A day or 

 two afterwards he tried again and caught a " bayard" 

 of at least forty pounds, then another 1 of nine pounds, 

 and later another of upwards of sixty pounds, all caught 

 with a live fish bait and a float. 



On another occasion he caught a " baggar " of fifty 

 pounds, a splendid fish like a clean run salmon in colour. 

 This beautiful fish is considered by the Arabs the 

 best in the river, and Sir Samuel Baker says " is quite 

 equal to a fine trout. " * On October 4 he had par- 

 ticularly fine sport first a beautiful baggar of forty 

 pounds, then another magnificent one of between seventy 

 and eighty pounds, and some others of less value, f 



These details, necessarily abbreviated to a simple 

 statement of results, show what can be done in 

 some of the African rivers. In East Africa Sir 

 John Willoughby took the very sensible precaution of 

 carrying a seine net, and reports that with it " we 

 caught a good many fish from a few ounces to three or 

 four pounds weight. The neighbouring river was full 

 of fish, which helped our commissariat a good deal, 

 as the porters were very fond of fish, especially after 

 it had been smoked and kept a few days." 



Reports from South Africa, a dry country where 

 little fishing might be expected, also furnish details of 



K The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, by Sir Samuel Baker, 1867, p. 229. 

 f Ibid., pp. 2312. 



The Big Game of East Africa, by Captain Sir John Willoughby, 

 pp. 178 and 182. 



