In This It Was Far
More Agreeable To Pass The Day Than At The Camp; Accordingly We
Arranged The Ground
With mats and carpets, and my wife converted
the thorny bower into an African drawing-room, where she could
sit
With her work and enjoy the view of the river at her feet,
and moreover watch the fishing."
CHAPTER X.
A FEW NOTES AT EHETILLA.
I WILL not follow the dates of the journal consecutively, but
merely pounce from time to time upon such passages as will
complete the description of our life at Ehetilla.
"October 4.--I went out fishing in the usual place, where the
Till joins the Atbara; the little stream has disappeared, and the
bed is now perfectly dry, but there are many large rocks and
sandbanks in the river, which are excellent places for heavy
fish. I had only three runs, but I landed them all. The first was
a beautiful baggar about forty pounds, from which time a long
interval elapsed before I had another. I placed a bait of about
a pound upon my treble hook, and this being a fine lively fellow,
was likely to entice a monster. I was kept waiting for a
considerable time, but at last he came with the usual tremendous
rush. I gave him about fifty yards of line before I fixed him,
and the struggle then commenced, as usual with the baggar, by his
springing out of the water, and showing his superb form and size.
This was a magnificent fish, and his strength was so great, that
in his violent rushes he would take sixty or seventy yards of
line without my permission. I could not check him, as the line
burnt and cut my fingers to such a degree that I was forced to
let it go, and my only way of working him was to project the butt
of the rod in the usual manner; this was a very feeble break upon
the rush of such a fish. At last, after about half an hour of
alternate bullying and coaxing, I got him into the shallows, and
Bacheet attempted to manage him; this time he required the
assistance of Wat Gamma, who quickly ran down from the camp, and
after much struggling, an enormous baggar of between seventy and
eighty pounds was hauled to the shore by the two delighted Arabs.
"I never enjoyed the landing of a fish more than on the present
occasion, and I immediately had the flag hoisted for a signal,
and sent the largest that I had just caught as a present to
Florian and his people. The two fish as they lay upon the green
reeds, glittering in silvery scales, were a sight to gladden the
eyes of a fisherman, as their joint weight was above one hundred
and twenty pounds. I caught another fish in the evening something
over twenty pounds, an ugly and useful creature, the coor, that
I despised, although it is a determined enemy while in play.
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