AND STRANGE FISHERMEN 



none at all : the body of a good-sized shell-fish is tied to 

 the end of the line, and the woman, sitting in her canoe, 

 waits till some fish is choked by the bulky bait, and then 

 draws up. When not engaged thus, these primitive fish- 

 wives are occupied in diving for shell-fish and sea-eggs ; 

 this they do without any such mechanical appliances as 

 ropes or weights, springing into one or two-fathom water 

 from the rocks just as we might dive from a boat or 

 spring-board. Some of the more energetic of the men 

 practise fish-spearing, pulling out to a depth of a few 

 fathoms, and "jabbing" at the fish as they appear, with a 

 one-barbed spear ; but this is an operation which requires 

 more judgment than the poor Fuegians possess, as any- 

 one is aware who has ever aimed at even a stationary 

 object that is under water. 



Passing on to the African continent, we see very much 

 the same state of things as in America sea-fisheries 

 mainly under direct or indirect European influence, the 

 natives attaching more importance to the rivers and 

 lakes. In the Nile, fishing is carried on almost as it was 

 in the days of the Pharaohs, by lines and dip-nets, the 

 latter worked from the bank, and shaped something like a 

 very long-handled shrimp push-net, or by groping in the 

 mud as the waters recede after the floods. A very popu- 

 lar fish that is taken in the latter way is the bichir, which 

 is about eighteen inches long, and is covered with hard, 

 bony scales. In the same manner the Arabs of the Upper 

 Nile catch what they call the " thunder-fish,"" which aver- 

 ages a foot in length and, like that of the Calabar River 

 in the west, is endowed with considerable power of 



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