90 
In the Heart of Africa 
ran right in front of our camp. Our travelling companions, 
who remained on the shore in momentary expectation of a 
terrible spectacle, sent ironical felicitations and benedictions after 
us. I then lit the fuse with my lighted cigar, and flung out 
the bomb as far away from the boat as possible. A small 
cloud of smoke which rose, hissing softly, from the surface of 
the lake marked the spot where it fell. It was high time then 
to get a good distance away from the gruesome bomb. Ali 
rowed like a racer, and, making a final spurt, in a twinkling 
we had got about a hundred metres from the smoke. A breath¬ 
less moment elapsed. Then a dull, weak-sounding report was 
heard, a little fountain spurted up from the spot in question, 
and all was over. Loud bursts of laughter relieved our com¬ 
panions on the banks from their breathless suspense. No one 
had been blown up; we all stood firmly on our legs, and only 
the faintest concussion had been noticed. We rowed leisurely 
to the scene of the explosion, and gradually collected all the 
fish which had been driven to the surface. There were from 
one to two dozen percine cichlidcBy very frequent in Africa; 
all small specimens a few inches in length. They lay motionless 
on the water, their air-bladders protruding from their mouths, 
or swam round in circles, breathing with great difficulty. The 
dark-coloured males exhibited beautiful bronze-green cross¬ 
stripes, and the females carried their young fry of five or six in 
their mouths, a habit peculiar to this species and intended as 
a protection from danger. 
This very harmless explosion had quite solved our doubts 
as to the dangers attending such proceedings. The fact that 
only a very small number of little fish had been killed by a 
single bomb led me in future always to use two or three bound 
together with wax-cloth. Not until then was I enabled to secure 
any big fish. The scurried flight from the point of concussion 
had also proved itself unnecessary, and so we afterwards con¬ 
tented ourselves with leisurely rowing twenty to thirty metres 
further away, and there quietly awaiting events. It is true that 
the fountain tossed up from the smooth surface by means of 
