1864. ] COLLECTED BY DR. KIRK ON THE ZAMBESI. 305 
trade, and, being in contact with those passing to the coast, are 
cowardly and treacherous; thieves on all occasions, they are never 
to be trusted ; their civility and goodwill extend only to those who 
have the power to punish if otherwise treated. These people depend 
on the lake for much of their food, and from its waters draw abun- 
dant support with the minimum of labour. They display great in- 
genuity in their many contrivances for capturing fish, and, except fly- 
fishing, employ all the methods in use among more civilized races. 
The net in all its forms is in use, from the seine to the cast-net ; yet, 
curiously, the manufacture is different, and the common reef-knot 
employed instead of our more secure method of netting. Fish-weirs 
are thrown across narrow entrances to lagoons; and fish-baskets, 
cleverly made of reeds or split bamboo, placed in likely spots, com- 
monly near rushes and papyrus frequented by mud-fish. The fish- 
hook with bait isa common amusement with the children. In other 
parts the spear is dexterously thrown, and fish-poison used in fayour- 
able localities. 
‘Of the Zambesi fishes, many are peculiar to the brackish tidal 
creeks ; others, such as the spotted electric fish, to the higher parts 
of the delta, and are unknown above; while some marine fish, as 
the Saw-fish, ascend far up, being common at Lupata, and far from 
rare at Tete, 260 miles from the coast. 
«Above the rapids of Kebra-bassa many fine fishes were seen, 
which, if they exist elsewhere, are rare. 
‘That part of the Rovuma explored yielded a small number of 
fishes, many of which were unknown to me previously ; but I was 
assured by the crew of the boat that they were to be found also in the 
Zambesi. The natives who then accompanied us had not the inti- 
mate knowledge of fish possessed by the people from the ixterior ; 
but as the kinds referred to were remarkable and at once easily to 
be distinguished, it would appear that, if not the same, at least allied 
forms were familiar to them, which they confirmed by showing a 
knowledge of the habits, which proved accurate. 
**The Rovuma is during the dry season a mere streamlet, winding 
from side to side along a sandy bed ; but during the rains, swollen by 
mountain torrents, it becomes a large river, and opens to one of the 
finest bays on the East-African coast. As a trade entrance to the 
interior it is of no service; its banks are infested by the Tsetse fly, 
named there ‘Chipanga.’ The natives are notorious robbers, to 
whom honour is unknown, and by whom fair dealing is looked on as 
weakness ; yet, like all such cowards, they fear those better armed 
than themselves. 
** With my limited means of transport at command, from the most 
interesting places it was possible to bring off only the dried skins of 
many fishes, which, being dried and placed along with plants between 
paper, were easily preserved. Fish-poison, where it can be applied, 
forms one of the best means for obtaining a tolerably full series of 
the species of a certain locality. Few savage tribes are ignorant of 
some such agent: in the interior of Africa a Gardenia bush yields 
Proc. Zoou. Soc.—1864, No. XX. 
