58 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



to safely guide the bateau down through them at night. We shot through at a 

 tremendous rate and once the boat touched something. The boys shouted with 

 glee, while I came to a sober realization that it would have been better to trust the 

 sky than the rapids. But we got safely back to the huts early in the evening. 



On the seventh of November I collected about the rocks just above the fall. 

 Here I succeeded again with hiari in getting fishes which could have been secured 

 in no other way. At one point the bank is piled with huge blocks of stone. To 

 dislodge the fishes from between them would have been impossible in any ordinary 

 way. We pounded some hiari roots and washed them in the swift current that 

 was flowing towards the rocks. At once some species came to the surface, straight 

 up, without attempting to escape. Several species were dislodged including an 

 electric eel. We repeatedly got it into our dip-net, and it as often got out again, 

 without, however, making any coordinated movement to escape from the reach of 

 the net. It proved too slippery, however, to hold in the net, and it got away. 

 When the launch came by from Tumatumari we loaded my effects into it and I 

 left the region of the Potaro and upper Essequibo. I landed at Rockstone in the 

 afternoon and took the train for Wismar the next morning. After packing fishes 

 all clay I went to Christianburg as the guest of Messrs. Spence and Brummel. On 

 the ninth I rested at Christianburg. The tenth Mr. Brummel took me to Kumaka, 

 where I made arrangements to have a creek poisoned, and on the morning of the 

 eleventh I took the steamer for Georgetown. 



Visiting the markets, preserving and packing fishes, suffering a relapse, re- 

 covering from the fever, and enjoying the hospitality of friends at Georgetown 

 consumed the time until sailing for New York. Everything collected arrived at 

 home safely. 



Method of Preserving. 



The method of preserving the fishes, not one of the twenty-five thousand of 

 which was lost through decay in this tropical region, was as follows: 



In the Essequibo and the lowlands all fishes except large catfishes were dropped 

 alive into a can of 25-35 per cent, alcohol in which they were killed. Minute 

 fishes were placed in vials or in small bottles instead of in the tank. Shortly after 

 reaching the camp or home all the fishes above two inches were injected with 95 

 per cent, alcohol, freed from the coagulated slime, and placed in a can with about 

 50 per cent, alcohol. The first alcohol, if less than 25 per cent., was thrown away; 

 if more than 25 per cent, it was allowed to stand and was decanted to be used again. 

 A day or two following the catch the specimens were transferred into 75 per cent, 

 alcohol and the larger ones again injected. The following day they were roughly 



