THE JOURNEY OF THE BOATS TO YO 167 



green reeds and coverlet of lilies, and attract large numbers 

 of duck and teal. There are no canoes upon the river and 

 the natives cross on rough rafts of reeds bound upon cala- 



I'ATTI.K UN THE RIVER BANK 



bashes, or else swrn supported by two large gourds fastened 

 at either end of a bamboo, like a dumb-bell. Nor are the 

 inhabitants of the river-banks very industrious fishermen. 

 Occasionally one passes a little fishing-station where three 

 or four men are working a huge circular net three times the 

 size of those on the Benue, which I have described. But 

 most of them reserve their energies in tliis direction till the 

 falUng of the river, when the fish are cut off by thousands in 

 the pools. Then the natives come down in large parties to 

 spear them, and little settlements of grass huts spring up 

 along the banks, where the air for days is laden with the smell 

 of smoke and fish, and the land littered with the heads and 

 shining scales. For about four months, from April to August, 

 the Yo is nothing more than a dried-up watercourse, with 



