Lake Kiwu and its Islands 
89 
question. Our visit to the islands of Lake Kiwu was a matter 
of great importance because they lie exactly on the boundary 
line between the two great divisions of the continent, so entirely 
different in character, the western forest zone and the eastern 
steppe zone. 
For these reasons, therefore, Lake Kiwu marked an exceed¬ 
ingly important point in our programme, and almost immediately 
after our arrival at Kissenji we started making excursions on 
the lake in our little folding boats. We seized the earliest 
opportunity to experiment with dynamite for fishing purposes. 
Although in a general way such a method of fishing is to be 
condemned, it may strongly be recommended for purely scientific 
purposes. No other method, whether angling, net-, or basket¬ 
fishing, can give such satisfactory results. Just, the factor which 
renders this method “ taboo ” for professional fishermen—^namely, 
the killing of young, insufficiently developed fish—makes it of 
the greatest value to the zoologist, for in this very way he 
learns to distinguish the younger forms of species from those 
fully developed, from which they often differ considerably in 
colour and shape. Dynamite, too, is most serviceable in bringing 
those fish to the surface which maintain a hidden existence at 
the bottom, amongst stones and plants, and thereby elude 
ordinary fishing methods. The quantity of fish captured varies 
according to the amount of blasting material employed and the 
plenitude, or otherwise, of fish life in the waters worked, yet it 
always falls short of an average catch with the net. 
I will not attempt to deny that my first experiment with 
dynamite caused me a certain degree of uneasiness. Weiss was 
the only one of us who had had any experience, and that he 
had almost forgotten. I selected with great care a fuse of 
ample length, about 60 centimetres, which had to be attached 
to a bomb weighing some 50 grammes; so that, whatever hap¬ 
pened, I could get well away from the sphere of action before 
the explosion occurred. Accompanied by my “boy,” Ali ben 
Mahsud, who could manage his oars passably well, I got into 
our little boat and made for the mouth of the Sebeja, which 
M 
