Bongdan] FORESTRY ; FISHERIES ; MINERALS 85 Belgian a serious problem. Timber could be floated from the forests of the northern territories for a thousand miles down the Congo , but it could not pass by water through the cataract regions to the sea .

(3) FISHERIES Fishing is naturally one of the chief occupations of the riverain people, and of those round some of the lakes. At certain seasons, when flooded areas are drying up, whole villages migrate for several weeks to the rivers to catch fish with baskets or by spearing.

They split the fish or cut them into strips and dry them in the sun or over wood fires. At Stanley Falls, and many other places on the upper Congo and its tribu taries, enormous quantities of fish are caught during the low -water season by means of large funnel-shaped wicker baskets held in place by timber platforms erected in the falls and rapids. On the lower Congo netting is the more usual method of fishing. Poisoning is practised on the Semliki river, and on many of the upper Congo streams. Dried fish is one of the most familiar articles of barter in all the native markets, but is not exported .

(4) MINERALS (a) Natural Resources Coal. - Large quantities of inferior coal have been found on both banks of the Lukuga river over a wide area lying near Lake Tanganyika. Borings have dis closed several horizontal seams from 30 to 60 ft. thick . As mined up to the present the product is too ashy to be utilized for steam coal. Coal of the same quality has also been found near Bukama.

Copper. - In addition to the copper ore of various types to be found in almost every part of the province of Katanga (see below, pp. 115–16) , good ores occur in the