126 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



least I have shot them up to that size I never succeeded 

 in catching any). These queer fish like to attach them- 

 selves to the rocks at the sides of very deep and swift 

 running streams, in which position, and about a foot or 

 two beneath the surface, they will remain for hours. They 

 have no teeth. 



THE YELLOW FISH. This is the commonest fish of 

 south Africa, and is found in water at all elevations. 

 It grows to a large size, having been taken up to as much 

 as thirty pounds weight on the Vaal River. It is rather 

 a well-shaped fish, with large yellow scales. It is most 

 easily captured with dough or paste, and, though naturally 

 a bottom feeder, can sometimes be taken with an or- 

 dinary trout fly. It gives fairly good play, and is good 

 eating. The best time to fish for it is from August to 

 about May. In the Transvaal low country the spawning 

 season takes place during the warm weather and, like 

 those of most other local fish, the majority of the young 

 fry are to be seen about the end of the rainy season. 



There are a great many other and usually smaller carp 

 and perch-like fishes which have scientific, but I think 

 very few of them European names. The local natives 

 have of course terms for the majority of them. 



Towards the end of the dry season, the pools in the 

 smaller rivers (which do not run all the year round) 

 shrink to very small dimensions, and the number of fish 

 cooped up in a few feet of muddy water is wonderful. 

 This is the chance of the natives, coinciding as it does 

 with the period when food is becoming scarce in the 

 kraals. The women, laden with wicker work fishing 

 baskets, repair to the pools and scoop the unfortunate 

 fish into their baskets and out on to the banks, literally 

 in armfuls. In larger pools the fish are often driven by 

 a line of men, boys, and women wading knee deep, into 



