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Besides the means for capture previously described the 
natives of Africa, as elsewhere among aborigines and in 
tropical parts, resort to vegetable products for the purpose 
of stupefying and poisoning fish, JI may mention the 
“ Toatoa,” used in O’ Quahao, a country lying to the south- 
east of the Ashantee kingdom, of which it was, not many 
years back, a dependency. The juice of this product is 
described as “so sharp that it wounds the skin on which it 
falls.” The “Efswe” is also used there, which, thrown in a 
pounded condition into the river, when comparatively still, 
or into small ponds or pools, is said to stun the fish. Of 
these I have not, so far, been able to secure complete 
botanical specimens with a view to their identity or classifi- 
cation. At a certain season of the year, the lagoon waters 
where they approach the mouths of rivers become quite 
green from the presence of some class of algze, and during 
that time the natives hesitate to eat fresh fish, alleging 
that there is a danger of being poisoned. 
Reference is frequently made to this practice in the works 
that have been from time to time written on parts of this 
interesting continent. 
Messrs. Capello and Ivens, in their work ‘From Ben- 
guela to Yacca,’ testify, in addition to the abundance of 
fresh-water fish, to the use of a leguminous plant called, in 
the vicinity of the river Luando, a branch of the Cuanza, 
. “ T’chingando,” which, from its poisonous properties, causes 
vertigo among the fish and ensures their ready capture. 
They also record that the leaves of the “Ulo,” a vegetable 
bearing a yellow flower, are also greatly used on the 
Cuango: “thrown into the stream they intoxicate the fish 
to such a degree that the creatures are easily taken with the 
hand.” 
In his Paper on ‘Indian Fish and Fishing,’ Dr. Francis 
