in THE VICTORIA NYANZA 33 



These winged clouds are known to entomologists as 

 "dancing-swarms." On any warm summer evening 

 in England dancing-swarms of gnats may be seen over 

 pools, ponds, or water-butts containing stagnant water. 

 The eggs of the mosquito are hatched in warm water, and 

 the larval and pupal stages are passed in this medium. 

 When the pupae are ready to hatch they rise to the 

 surface, emerge from the pupa-cases, dry their wings and 

 fly away. In order to produce such enormous clouds 

 of gnats the water of the lake must contain myriads of 

 larv;e. The natives around the lake catch these gnats 

 by means of grease and make them up into an oily kind 

 of cake and eat them. Among the natives living around 

 Lake Nyasa this preparation is known as " Kungu 

 cake." Kungu means " mist," which the dense flights 

 of these midges resemble. 



A description of the Kungu fly by the Rev. 

 A. E. Eaton is given in the appendix to Elton's 

 Journals (1879). It is identified as a gnat. He also 

 states that similar immense swarms of gnats have 

 appeared in England, and have been mistaken at a 

 distance for columns of smoke. 



In Egypt dense flocks of pigeons in the distance 

 are often mistaken for clouds. This is also true of 

 locusts, dust, sand, and smoke. 



A description of the Victoria Nyanza would be in- 

 complete without some consideration of a remarkable 

 animal, the Marsh-buck ; a bird, the Jacana, or Lily- 

 trotter ; the Mud or Lung fish (Lepidosiren), and the 

 most beautiful of all rushes, the Papyrus. 



The first is the animal known as Speke's antelope, 

 in honour of the distinguished traveller who discovered 

 it on his second journey to find the source of the Nile 

 (1863). The buck has horns spirally twisted, but they 

 are absent in the female. Its hoofs are greatly elongated 

 and adapted to enable the animal to walk on the sub- 

 merged reeds and mud of the swamps in which it lives. 

 The skin which covers the back of the pastern is hairless, 



D 



