Caught A Curious
Fish (Tetrodon Physa Of Geof.), That Distends Itself With Air Like A
Bladder; Colour Black, And Yellow Stripes; Lungs; Apertures Under The
Fins, Which Open And Shut By Their Movement, Their Motion Being A
Semi-Revolution.
This fish is a close link between fish and turtle; the
head is precisely that of the latter, having no teeth, but cutting jaws
of hard bone of immense power.
Many minutes after the head had been
severed from the body, the jaws nipped with fury anything that was
inserted in the mouth, ripping through thin twigs and thick straw like a
pair of shears. The skin of the belly is white, and is armed with
prickles. The skin is wonderfully tough. I accordingly cut it into a
long thong, and bound up the stock of a rifle that had been split from
the recoil of heavy charges of powder. The flesh was strong of musk, and
uneatable. There is nothing so good as fish skin - or that of the
iguana, or of the crocodile - for lashing broken gun-stocks. Isinglass,
when taken fresh from the fish and bound round a broken stock like a
plaster, will become as strong as metal when dry. Country as usual -
flat and thorny bush. A heavy swell creates a curious effect in the
undulations of the green rafts upon the water. Dinka country on east
bank; Shillook on the west; course south; all Arab tribes are left
behind, and we are now thoroughly among the negroes.
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