It Is Never Found A Mile From Water;
Islets In Marshes And Rivers Are Its Favorite Haunts, And It Is Quite Unknown
Except In The Central Humid Basin Of Africa.
Having a good deal of curiosity,
it presents a noble appearance as it stands gazing, with head erect,
at the approaching stranger.
When it resolves to decamp, it lowers its head,
and lays its horns down to a level with the withers; it then begins
with a waddling trot, which ends in its galloping and springing over bushes
like the pallahs. It invariably runs to the water, and crosses it
by a succession of bounds, each of which appears to be from the bottom.
We thought the flesh good at first, but soon got tired of it.
Great shoals of excellent fish come down annually with the access of waters.
The mullet (`Mugil Africanus') is the most abundant. They are caught in nets.
The `Glanis siluris', a large, broad-headed fish, without scales, and barbed
- called by the natives "mosala" - attains an enormous size and fatness.
They are caught so large that when a man carries one over his shoulder
the tail reaches the ground. It is a vegetable feeder,
and in many of its habits resembles the eel. Like most lophoid fishes,
it has the power of retaining a large quantity of water
in a part of its great head, so that it can leave the river,
and even be buried in the mud of dried-up pools, without being destroyed.
Another fish closely resembling this, and named `Clarias capensis'
by Dr. Smith, is widely diffused throughout the interior,
and often leaves the rivers for the sake of feeding in pools.
As these dry up, large numbers of them are entrapped by the people.
A water-snake, yellow-spotted and dark brown, is often seen swimming along
with its head above the water:
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