THE FASCINATION OF IT 19 
fishing in the brown waters of the river... . 
What one would have done without the river is 
hard to say, and it proved a great boon for all the 
inmates of the fort in providing a pleasant addition 
to the daily fare of trek ox and goat.” 
From France, in the early days of the great 
war, reports came that the rank and file, when 
off duty near a river or fishable water, used to 
angle with a rifle and fixed bayonet for rod, with 
an improvised line ; hooks no doubt were pro- 
cured somehow or other. Much was made of 
this in the illustrated papers at the time, and the 
rector of Boksburg, a mining centre in the 
Transvaal, took occasion, in a Sunday sermon, 
to approve heartily of the diversion, describing 
it as a wholesome set-off against over-concentra- 
tion in time of strain. Later a good deal of 
fishing was done both by officers and men in 
parts of the great battle area where it was 
possible, 
In the South-West African campaign of 1914— 
1915, when off the coast at Luderitzbucht in the 
early days, you could see occasional fishermen in 
khaki. Amongst them once, for a brief spell, 
was Captain Louis Botha, son of the great man. 
Some of those sturdy, well-built sons of Natal, 
the Natal Carbineers, used, now and again, when 
off duty, to slip down for an hour’s sea-fishing ; 
those of them who lived on or near the Natal 
south coast, and enjoyed the excellent sea-fishing 
there, were especially skilled. 
At Alexandria, Egypt, in 1918, the garrison 
