lost prize, as I knew him to be a large fish • by
his attack upon a bait of a pound weight. I found
my bait was killed, but having readjusted the hook,
I again cast it in the same direction, and slowly
played it towards me. I had him! He took it
immediately, and I determined to allow him to
swallow it before I should strike. Without a halt,
about a hundred yards of line were taken at the
first rush towards the middle of the river; he then
stopped, and I waited for about a minute, and then
fixed him with a jerk that bent my bamboo like a
fly-rod. To this he replied by a splendid challenge
in one jump he flew about six feet above the water,
and showed himself to be one of the most beautiful
fish I had ever seen ; not one of those nondescript
antediluvian brutes that you expect to catch in
these extraordinary rivers, but in colour he appeared
like a clean run salmon. He gave tremendous play,
several times leaping out of the water, and shaking
his head furiously to free himself from the hook; then
darting away with eighty or a hundred yards of
fresh line, until he at last was forced to yield to
the strong and elastic bamboo, and his deep body
stranded upon the fatal shallows.
“ Bacheet was a charming lad to land a fish : he
was always quiet and thoughtful, and never got in
the way of the line ; this time he closely approached
him from behind, slipped both his hands along his
side, and hooked his fingers into the broad gills;
thus he dragged him, splashing through the shallows,
to the sand bank. What a beauty! What was he %
The colour was that of a salmon, and the scales were
not larger in proportion : he was about fifty pounds’
Weight. The back fin resembled that of a perch,
with seven rays; the second dorsal fin towards the
tail had fourteen rays; the head was well shaped,
and small in proportion; the eyes were bright red,
and shone like rubies ; and the teeth were very
small. I cut away my line, as the hook was deeply
swallowed ; and after having washed this beautiful
fish, I assisted Bacheet to carry it to the camp,
where it was laid upon a clean mat at the tent
door for admiration. This species . of fish is considered
by the Arabs to be the best in the river,
it is therefore called ‘ El Baggar ’ (the cow). It
is a species of perch, and we found it excellent—
quite equal to a fine trout. I made an exact sketch
of it on the spot, after which the greater portion
was cut up and salted; it was then smoked for
about four hours. The latter process is necessary to
prevent the flies from blowing it, before' it becomes
sufficiently dry to resist their attacks.
“ For several days I passed my time in fishing,
with the varying success that must attend all
fishermen. Upon the extreme verge of the river’s
bank were dense bushes of the nabbuk, about fifteen
feet high, but so thickly massed with green foliage
that I cut' out a tunnel with my hunting knife,
and completed a capacious arbour, thoroughly protected
from the sun. In this it was far more