THKOUGH FRENCH UBANGI 



59 



refused to go ashore, and more active measures would 

 have brought instant disaster. Mr Talbot's anxiety was 

 for his new gun, but mine was for our own safety, and 

 I wondered whether we should survive long enough to 

 count how many crocodiles fed off us. Suddenly our 

 boatman consented to land at some rocks, and after 

 this deliverance Mr Talbot took charofe of the canoe 

 himself, and we devoted ourselves to the truly peaceful 

 occupation of fishing. Not even a bite disturbed our 

 quiet, though we tried the long line, short line, and 

 harling. It was tantalising, for fish of all sizes jumped 

 round us, and, indeed, they appear mostly to live their 

 lives on the surface. The natives fish when hunger 

 drives them, but they prefer to do so in the dry 

 season, when the lake falls some thirteen feet. 



There are three different methods of fishing, the 

 principal of which is with a long bag - shaped net 

 that the fish enter with ease, but the meshes of which 

 close round the fins as they try to back 

 out. The second is by unbarbed hooks and 

 a short line attached to a light calabash 

 float, which is probably dragged for miles 

 through the water ere a big fish can be 

 landed. The third way is with barbed 

 spears, but this is not very effectual, for 

 the distances thrown are small, and the 

 aim cannot be accurate from a wobbly 

 perch on a canoe roughly hewn from the 

 trunk of a tree. 



Our time was up, the canoe was requisi- 

 tioned ; and the good - nature of Captain 

 Speeding, who, as representative of the Niger Com- 

 pany, had allowed us to have it for those few days, 



