INTBODUCTION. xxvu 



each attached to a long line by a short one of about 12 inches and set about 2 feet 

 apart. There was a small stone to about every 10 hooks, a large stone at one end and 

 a float at the other. The hooks were baited with " dourra " (millet) paste, but small 

 worms are sometimes used. At Kafr-el-Zayat, on the Delta, worms were used in 

 summer and paste in winter; Shal and Shilbe are the two species chiefly caught. 

 Occasionally these barbed hooks are baited with young fish, such as " Bessariya," but 

 this does not find much favour with the professional fishermen. However, when 

 fishing in the Soudan, I found pieces offish were excellent bait. 



In the Cairo district the fishing in the irrigation-canals, trenches, and pools left 

 after the inundation was unimportant, the fish being small and chiefly Fahada, Bolti, 

 Armut, Bessariya, and Rhy, the Armut being especially common when there was much 

 mud and little water, and easily caught by men groping with their hands round the 

 sides of the pools. Care is necessary, however, on account of the sharp spine of 

 the pectoral fins, which are held out at right angles to the body when the fish is 

 disturbed. Owing to the kindness of Captain Stanley Flower, I was enabled to fish in 

 the lake of the Zoological Gardens at Giza, which communicates with the Nile by a 

 large drain. In this lake I caught some splendid specimens of Bolti {Tilapia nilotica). 



Towards the end of April I left Cairo for the Delta, with the intention of working 

 the four great lakes Menzaieh, Borollos, Edkou, and Mareotis, then the Damietta and 

 Eosetta branches of the Nile, finishing with the Barrage 15 miles North of Cairo. Lake 

 Menzaieh was chosen as the starting-point, because it is the most important fishing- 

 ground in the whole of Egypt, the chief halagers being at Ghet-el-Nassara in the 

 North-west corner, Matariyeh in the centre of the lake and Gemil on the North. 

 The lake has an area of about 1000 square miles and covers what was formerly one of 

 the most fertile districts in Egypt, intersected in ancient times by three arms of the 

 Nile — the Pelusiac, Tanitic, and Mendesian. The depth of the water is inconsiderable, 

 except near Gemil, which is connected with the Mediterranean by a narrow channel. 

 The southern end of the lake is marshy and much overgrown with rushes, &c. 

 The water is brackish, but at Gemil it is salt, whilst at the places where the Nile 

 water enters the lake it is almost fresh, so that in the same lake one finds both 

 fresh- and salt-water fish, and at least one species which can live in either. The bottom 

 consists of mud and sand, with large patches of a long ribbon-like weed called 

 "hummul" (Rvppia maritima). The lake is dotted everywhere with islands and 

 sand-banks. 



I made my headquarters at Ghet-el-Nassara, which is about 4 miles from Damietta 9 

 and during a stay of 10 weeks I visited the other fishing-stations on the lake. 



The conditions under which fishing takes place on the lakes have given rise to 

 methods not used on the Nile. A large net, known as a " shabak-el-habl," and on 

 Lakes Borollos, Mareotis, and Edkou as an " eddel-el-gafsha " or simply " gafsha/' is 

 worked by a company of men, individual fishing being not much in vogue on the lakes : 



