March, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
155 
very successfully employed. The sport is 
always at night as these fish rarely take 
the hook during the daylight hours. It is 
a most inspiring sight to visit any of the 
fishing piers along the coast when a run 
of these fish is on. Every sort of tackle 
which the mind of man has brought out to 
the day of trial is employed; good, bad, in¬ 
different and even worse are in the game. 
The users can ordinarily be catalogued 
about the same way, hand lines with sink¬ 
ers swinging high over head one moment, 
and the next paying respect to another 
fellow's ear not far removed, and then 
the mixup, until all is straightened out 
through some kind hand and gentle words. 
But these men are after meat, and not 
sport in its true sense. 
The proper way to get from these fish 
all the elements of angling delight is to 
use a light rod with line of not more than 
9 thread diameter and all equipment of 
like weight. As the fish swims much of 
the time well away from the bottom, a 
float can be very successfully used and is 
a pleasant way; as then the bait is well 
away from the annoying calico crabs and 
skates. Just enough lead should be used 
to keep the bait down as well as to give 
impetus to the cast. A 4-0 ringed Carlisle 
hook is the one most desirable, as it has 
a most keen point and is slightly curved, 
which seems to be of benefit in taking this 
fish. Into the eye of the hook a section 
of fine wire about eight inches in length 
should be fastened, this ending in a swivel 
into which the line must be tied. The use 
of the wire is necessary as the teeth of the 
fish are something to keep the fingers away 
from—sharp as needles and in most for¬ 
midable rows, they work havoc to gut 
snells. When they can be obtained there is 
no better bait than the spearing, or as 
they are generally called “white bait.” 
Pass the hook through the mouth, then out 
at the gill opening, then down the body to 
near the tail, then through the body; this 
will give a nice lure, and it should be 
trolled through the water gently to add to 
the chances of a strike as soon as in the 
water. The line must be kept taut as the 
fish never nibbles, taking bait with a rush, 
and is quite as likely to run towards the 
pier as away from it. Complete control 
must be kept continually so the strike may 
be felt, as it is dark and the float is a poor 
object to see out on the waves. Another 
method much employed is a very light cane 
rod and single line less in length, to which 
a small metal squid is attached. This 
moving rapidly through the water is most 
effective, if fish alone is the objective, as 
thus they may be taken in quantities. 
FISH PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE 
MANY FINNY INHABITANTS OF THE WATERS OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA ARE OF CONSIDER¬ 
ABLE POPULAR INTEREST BECAUSE OF THEIR PECULIAR SHAPES, ADAPTATIONS OR HABITS 
By JOHN T. NICHOLS, Assistant Curator of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History 
O F the two hundred and thirty-four 
species of fresh water fishes brought 
back to the American Museum of 
Natural History by Messrs. Lang and 
Chapin from the Congo River and its trib¬ 
utaries in equatorial Africa (a list of 
which has recently been published by the 
Museum) twenty-nine had not previously 
been known to Science, and many of them, 
because of their peculiar shapes, adapta¬ 
tions or habits, are of considerable popu¬ 
lar interest. Almost all are eaten by the 
natives in one form or another, although 
comparatively few would rank as good 
fishes in civilized countries, the meat of 
many being soft, musky and not of very 
good flavor. 
Perhaps the African fish most interest¬ 
ing to the scientist is known as Polypterus. 
It is cigar-shaped, covered with firm plate¬ 
like scales, which, unlike those of most 
fishes, do not overlap. Polypterus comes 
of an ancient stock, with almost this sin¬ 
gle exception, long since vanished from 
the earth. It is likely that amphibians and 
through them all the higher animals were 
derived long, long ago from similar fishes. 
At any rate such fishes, now so scarce, were 
at one time numerous and widely distrib¬ 
uted. The natives cook Polypterus in the 
hot ashes much as they do potatoes. When 
the fish is cooked, the scales separate from 
the beautiful white meat. As regards 
flavor, it is the best food fish in the Congo. 
Another ancient fish, Protopterus, is 
notable for the unique structure of its air- 
bladder specialized to function as a two- 
branched lung, enabling it to • breathe air 
when the swamps in which it lives are 
dried out. At such times it remains quies¬ 
cent, curled up in a capsule of hardened 
mud and furnished with air through a 
small aperture which opens to the surface 
of the ground. These capsules may be 
dug from the ground and transported to 
great distances without inconveniencing 
the fish. Some years ago, one was brought 
to the American Museum via England and 
when softened in warm water, the fish 
emerged in the best of health and spirits 
and ravenously hungry. It lived for some 
time with us in an aquarium feeding on 
angle worms. 
The Mormyrids are an old family char¬ 
acteristic of tropical Africa, not very close¬ 
ly related to any other fishes, though with 
some affinities to the herrings. Like the 
herrings, they die very quickly when taken 
from the water, and unlike them, they 
have small mouths, small scales and are 
excessively slimy. Mormyrids vary great¬ 
ly in form, even these which are closely 
related having often a very dissimilar ap¬ 
pearance. Among them we find species 
with very elongate decurved snouts sug¬ 
gesting the trunk of an elephant. This 
structure probably has some relationship to 
their feeding habits which have not as yet 
been worked out satisfactorily. Other 
species have the lower lip only elongated 
into a pointed beardlike process which is 
probably used in brushing minute animals 
from the vegetation into the river to be 
sucked into the small mouth above it. 
This seems to be evidence that the Mor¬ 
myrids originated in the South, perhaps in 
the Antarctic continent, of which geolo¬ 
gists speak, and reached equatorial Africa 
from there many ages ago. The remain¬ 
ing freshwater fishes seem to be more 
recent and to have, most of them, come in 
from the North and Northeast, probably 
from Asia. In this category are the Char- 
acins. 
T HE Characins are a large family of 
trimly built active fishes, resembling 
the trout in that they have a small 
adipose fin placed far back on the back, 
but with large scales like those of a carp. 
They are large or small in size, often 
brightly colored with reds, yellows, or 
orange, and differ widely from one another 
in their feeding habits. Some have small 
mouths and feeble teeth, others large 
mouths and very formidable dentition, but 
none seems to be dangerous to bathers, as 
we are told related species in South Amer¬ 
ica are. 
The family of carps and minnows make 
up a large part of the modern fresh-water 
fishes in the north, a great many species 
occurring both in Asia and North Amer¬ 
ica and a considerable number being found 
in Africa. Perhaps the most interesting of 
the latter belong to the genus Labeo with 
a sucker-like mouth and habits, though 
with no truly close relationship to the 
suckers, which are North American. 
B OTH in South America and Africa 
there are many catfishes compared to 
the few found in northern countries. 
They vary tremendously in form and ap¬ 
pearance, but almost all have the barbels of 
“whiskers” and the dangerous back and 
breast fin spines characteristic of our fa¬ 
miliar horned pout. Perhaps the most inter¬ 
esting of all African ones is the electric cat¬ 
fish. This is an ungainly shapeless creature 
lacking the defensive catfish spines, possess¬ 
ing as its weapon of defense the ability to 
give powerful electric shock. Its body is 
covered with a loose, leathery hide, and it 
is in this hide that the electric power is 
situated. As is the case with their rela¬ 
tives elsewhere, African catfishes are 
notable for their toughness and ability to 
live a long time out of water. A large 
variety, Heterobranchus, has a very pecu¬ 
liar and interesting mosslike structure of 
blood vessels situated near the gills which 
probably enables the fish more readily to 
breathe out of water. 
Several groups of marine fishes have 
penetrated the rivers of tropical Africa 
and there developed fresh-water spe¬ 
cies. Such are several kinds of Pellonula. 
differing very little from herrings from 
the sea, and two species of swellfishes, 
(continued on page 187) 
