OF FISHES FEOM LAKE TANGANYIKA. 543 



One species widely distributed in East Africa, Labco cylindricus, is added to the 

 list of CyprinidsB, all previously known species being endemic. Neobola, ranging over 

 North-east Africa and Lake Victoria, has yielded a third species representing this 

 genus of Cyprinidse in Lake Tanganyika. 



An AJestes previously regarded, from insufficient material, as identical with a Nile 

 and West-African species, is now found to be distinct. The Characinidae can therefore 

 no longer be said to be all non-endemic. 



A small Cyprinodontid (Haplochilus pumilus) was discovered almost simultaneously 

 by Dr. Cunnington in Lake Tanganyika and by Mr. E. Degen in Lake Victoria. 



And, finally, representatives of two families widely distributed in tropical Africa, the 

 Mormyridce and the Clupeidce, have been added. The discovery of Mormyridce is of 

 particular interest, as their supposed absence was regarded as a striking negative 

 feature of the great lake. 



These data, however, only further emphasize the truly African freshwater and 

 modern character of the fauna of Lake Tanganyika, a subject with which I have fully 

 dealt, from the ichthyological point of view, in an Address read at the British 

 Association Meeting in South Africa last summer, and I have nothing to alter in the 

 general conclusions I had arrived at before studying Dr. Cunnington's collection. 



Dr. Cunnington supplies the following note on the methods of fishing observed by 

 him : — " Almost the whole shore of this big lake is inhabited by a fishing population, 

 and large quantities of fish of the most diverse kinds are obtained from the well-stocked 

 water. The lake-shore inhabitants belong, however, to a number of different tribes, so 

 that the methods of fishing adopted, and the kinds of fish most highly prized, vary 

 somewhat in the different regions. While most, if not all, of the Tanganyika fish are 

 good for food, the Polypterus, for instance, is not eaten by the Wajiji, and, on the 

 other hand, the large Siluroids, with their rich oily flesh, are usually much valued by 

 the natives for eating. Again, towards the north end of the lake, the small whitebait- 

 like Clupeid, Pellonula miodon, is a particularly favourite dish. 



" Perhaps the commonest method of fishing is by means of a net laid out from the 

 shore in a semicircle and drawn in from both ends. In some cases this may be merely 

 a fiat wall of net-work, buoyed above and weighted below, though even then not more 

 than three or four feet in depth, while in other cases it may be still shallower, but 

 furnished at intervals with a series of pockets. On parts of the western shore a small 

 and singularly inefficient net of this type is employed, consisting of but two such 

 pockets of small dimensions in the middle, and on each side a long-shaped ring 

 converted into a grating by flat strips of bark. 



"Fishing is also carried on in many parts of the lake by the aid of a long line 

 bearing a series of baited hooks at intervals. This is essentially in the nature of a 

 surface-line, being buoyed at each end, and the line is baited overnight and hauled in in 

 the morning. Fishing with rod and line is but little practised, and for this the natives 



