Liberia *- 



present writer to be very abundant in the stagnant fresh water 

 behind the Sino settlements in Kastern Liberia. 



The Fresh-water Fish of Liberia are characteristic of that 

 vast region of Tropical Africa styled by Mr. G. A. Boulenger 

 " Megapotamia " : they are related more or less intimately to 



the fish of the Gambia and 

 Senegal systems, the Niger, and 

 the Nile. 



It is known by now that 

 the fish fauna of the Niger and 

 the Nile presents much closer 

 resemblances than is the case 

 between the fish of the Nile, the 

 Congo Basin, and the Zambezi, 

 or even as compared to the fish 

 of the Victoria Nyanza and 

 those of the Nile and Lake 

 Rudolf. For instance, in Lake 

 Victoria Nyanza (which gives 

 birth to the Victoria Nile, but 



has probably only recently become connected with the Nile 

 system) there has not yet been discovered any example of that 

 remarkable African fresh-water fish, Polypterus ; yet there is 

 a Polypterus in the rivers of Liberia ( P. palmas). It is true 

 that this remarkable type of fish is also found in the Congo 

 Basin, but it is quite absent from Lake Nyasa and the 

 Zambezi. Of all existing fishes the Polypterid* probably offer 

 the greatest number of affinities with amphibians, and therefore- 

 come nearest (though they may still be very far off) to that, 

 as yet unknown, link between the fish and the land vertebrates 



824 



312. ELECTRIC CAT-FISH 



