Having caught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as would have been given in England under like circumstances, namely, that "the wind made the fish cold, and they would not bite." Many gardens of maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, fringed the marshy banks as we went on.

They belong to natives of the hills, who come down in the dry season, and raise a crop on parts at other times flooded.

While the crops are growing, large quantities of fish are caught, chiefly _Clarias capensis_, and _Mugil Africanus_; they are dried for sale or future consumption.
As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards wide, flowing in from a body of open water several miles broad.

Numbers of men were busy at different parts of it, filling their canoes with the lotus root, called _Nyika_, which, when boiled or roasted, resembles our chestnuts, and is extensively used in Africa as food.

Out of this lagoon, and by this stream, the chief part of the duckweed of the Shire flows.