I went to Mass at Bill Auth 1 s , while Bill went fishing 
again and cut open a couple of termite nests. One nest was deserted, 
the other was being raided by driver ants. 
We had JoXof rice - something like nasi go r eng, with fried 
rice, ehieken, ham, bacon, tomatoes, onion, egg plant and country 
pepper - at Vipond’s, The country chop of Liberia is certainly good. 
In the afternoon we went back to the stream near the rice 
shed where we had left Bobo and Flomo, and picked up them and their 
collection, taking the fish over to the rice shed to preserve them 
in alcohol and formalin. When the boys catch a number of large 
fishes - some of them are eight or ten inches long - Bill gives them 
enough for chop, so they are rapidly becoming very enthusiastic 
fishermen, and think derris root is great medicine. 
Spent the evening at the Club, but there was no movie tonight 
the film had not been sent up from Monrovia. 
- y-s- 
May 3 - 4 
These two days have been devoted to fish collecting in the 
small streams around the plantation. Yesterday we started over 
toward the hydro-electric plant on the Farmington River, but saw 
a promising little stream on the way, and stopped there for most 
of the day. Bobo and Flomo went a quarter of a mile up from the 
culvert and put derris root in the water; just b el w the culvert 
we stretched a net. In a few moments the stunned fish, floating 
on their sides, began to drift down, and for five or six hours 
we stayed there, with the boys picking up literally buckets full 
of desirable specimens. We didn’t count, but Bill estimated that 
there were twenty different species • 
I went back to the trading company about noon, and bought 
sardines, crackers, perrier water, pickles and jam, and we ate it 
by the side of the road in the broiling sun - fun but hot. 
In the afternoon we went over to the hsydro plant. This is 
under construction, and it was interesting to see how much work must 
be done before one can have electric power in the heart of Africa. 
There are falls here in the Farmington. Great stretches of forest 
land have been felled, a labor village and an office built, rocky 
cliffs blasted away with dynamite, roads for the trucks built, the 
river dammed and being dredged, and hundreds of black men were 
working with pick axes and wheelbarrows. 
The engineer in charge offered to dynamite the stream for 
Bill, to see what fishes could be caught in that way. The first 
blast was put off in rather shallow water close to shore; the 
second far out in a deep little bay; total result: four fishes 
as big as sardines. "The mountain labored, " says Bill, "and brought 
forth a mouse. " 
