232 [ THE AIR BREATHING 



surface of which men and cattle were moving about, while beneatfe 

 the surface were quantities of fish, several of which I saw captured. 



The mode in which the natives catch those fish is very peculiar, 

 and is in fact an ingenious application of their knowledge of the 

 fact, that they cannot long exist without atmospheric air. 



When the swamp is in a proper state for such operations, i. e., 

 when the water is neither too high nor too low, and the surface is 

 covered, as I have described, with a firm sod having two or three 

 feet of diluted mud beneath it, a native goes out at night, when the 

 air is still, and walking through the swamp, listens for the peculiar 

 sounds which the fish make in breathing. Having selected a part 

 in which those sounds are heard so frequently as to afford a pros- 

 pect of catching a considerable number, he proceeds to remove the 

 sod from a few circular patches, each about three feet in diameter, 

 in those places, in which there already exist small holes in the sod y 

 which the fish frequent for the purpose of breatMng. When that 

 is done, he returns home for the night. I did not think it necessary 

 to be present at the nocturnal part of the operations; but I accom- 

 panied the fisherman the following morning to the spot which he 

 had prepared during the previous night; and I found it a most 

 laborious effort to make my way over the treacherous surface, al- 

 though the natives appeared to traverse it without any difficulty. 

 When we reached the fishing ground, operations were commenced 

 by making a kind of enclosure, to cut off from the rest of the swamp 

 that portion in which the circular patches had been cleared of sod 

 the night before. This was done by breaking the sod in a narrow 

 line encompassing the space which it was intended to enclose, and 

 trampling a portion of it down to the more solid mud at the bot- 

 tom. The long grass, which is thus carried down, makes a kind 

 of fence, which is supposed to confine the fish; but which one can 

 hardly suppose to be very efficacious, as they would have but little 

 difficulty, if so inclined, in making their way through it. When 

 this is done the diluted mud in the holes that have been opened 

 over night is thickened by mixing it with some of the more solid 



