306 
BEASTS, BIRDS, AND FISHES. 
over the waters as we glided down the stream. The 
hippos required sharp shooting, as they seldom gave 
us time for an aim, sinking their heads the moment 
the boat was steadied. The natives harpoon them 
with barbed irons stuck loosely upon heavy poles 
longer than capstan-bars; and use trimmers of "solah," 
or pith- wood, attached by long ropes to the barbs. It 
must require expert swimmers to get up to a hippo in 
the water and deliver the thrust. We saw small gulls 
flitting about and darting at them. The dead scaly 
fish upon the water were about seven pounds weight, 
the shape of a thick short cod, but with a well-forked 
tail, above which, as Speke observed, there was a 
small rounded fleshy fin, like that seen on salmon or 
trout. The boatmen eagerly picked those up that 
floated along, even though they were stale. We could 
not account for their being found dead, except that 
they had been poisoned by the decayed matter which 
filled the river. At every place where a creel-trap 
was set, our men pulled in to extract the fish, but got 
little for their trouble. One morning we had some 
"Macquareh" for breakfast, and enjoyed them very 
much ; they had as little bone as a sole, and tasted like 
trout. Where the banks were high and covered with 
trees, monkeys occasionally jumped from bough to 
bough, and did not seem alarmed even within sight 
of habitations. They were grey, with long tails, 
white beards and eyebrows, black faces and ears. 
The largest birds were the Batteleur eagle and the 
Buceros : the former, when seen soaring and circling 
in the heavens, resembles a bat in figure, and has a 
black body, with the wings white underneath ; the 
Buceros is a large black bird, walking awkwardly about 
