ls, landed him.

I rarely succeeded in getting more than one at a time by this plan, for
the alarm soon spread, and I had then to wait for a day or two for them
to forget what had happened, or go to some other part of the bay where
they were not up to the dodge.

A root grew on the Natal flat with which I frequently captured fish; it
had the effect of fuddling them, and made them jump out of the water, if
used in a confined space. It was something like ground-ivy in growth,
the long fibres stretching for several feet round; the leaves were small
and shaped like clover. The root was discovered by taking hold of one
of these creepers and pulling it up until it led to the root, which was
then dug up. The root was about a foot long, and half an inch in
diameter. When a dozen or so had been collected, they were bruised and
fastened on to a long bamboo. The large pools of water left by the high
tides on the bluff amongst the rocks, were the scenes of operations,
into these the root was inserted, and then stirred round for some time.
In less than a minute small and large fish would dart out from the holes
in the rocks, and swim about the pool as though greatly perplexed, and
would very soon after turn on their backs and float, when they could be
taken with the hand. Sometimes with a duck and drake sort of
progression they skipped along over the top of the pool and sought the
dry land. If they were placed in water that was uncontaminated by this
root, they would recover in a few minutes, and might be eaten without
the slightest danger. This root was called by the Kaffirs "_Il, o
zarni_." I do not know if botanists are acquainted with it in any way.

The Kaffirs here made large enclosures of bamboo or stakes, driven so
close together that no fish could escape, but the water could make its
way through. The tops of these dams were covered about two feet deep at
high water; and as the rise and fall of the tide were here about four
feet, the stakes here were above the water when it went down. Mullet,
and many other fish that kept near the surface, amused themselves in
these enclosures until too late to escape, when they fell easy victims
to the assagies of the Kaffir, who paid his traps daily visits at low
water. I think a man might make a capital living by starting at Natal
as a fisherman on a large scale, and sending his fish during the cool
nights by pack-horses to Pietermaritzburg, where it is almost an unknown
lux