Ill 
THE VICTORIA NYANZA 
39 
In West Africa the negroes search diligently for the 
fish in its encysted state, and they are particularly fond 
of it and can keep it as a provision in the clod which 
envelops it. 
The Papyrus is a beautiful rush with a long green 
stem sometimes twenty feet high, which is not com¬ 
pletely circular. The stems are crowned with tufts 
of delicate filaments, which were used by the ancient 
Egyptians to make garlands for the shrines of the gods. 
A Raft made of the dried Papyrus Stems. Used by 
the Kavirondos on the Victoria Nyanza. 
The leaves are apple-green. The pith used for making 
writing material by the ancient Egyptians earned for 
this plant the name of “ paper reed,” it occupies that 
portion of the stem which lies beneath the surface of 
the water. The papyrus flourishes in the swamps of 
Uganda, around the shallow margins of the Victoria 
Nyanza and in the White Nile, but it is extinct in 
Lower Egypt. 
