EIGENMANN: THE FRESHWATER FISHES OF BRITISH GUIANA 



53 



my hand. I was surprised by the catch and more so by the sequel. The fish 

 jumped out of my hand and stuck to a vertical rock by its tail and jumped from 

 this to another point higher up on the same rock. It was lost on the way down to 

 camp, so I sent William back the next day to poison the creek. He secured two 

 species of Rivulus {waimacui and breviceps) and a Characidium (vintoni), all of them 

 new. We collected about Tukeit in the afternoon, poisoning the creek just below 



Fig. 21. View looking up the dry bed of Shrimp Creek. Figure of man in middle distance shows the height 



of the rocky steps. Follow indices on cut. 



the landing with considerable success. The striking thing about the fauna at 

 Tukeit is its evident contamination by the fauna of the plateau. Helogenes and 

 Poecilocharax, fishes of the plateau, are found at Tukeit below the Kaieteur, but 

 were not taken lower down. 



On the 30th we started down the river. While the Indians were transporting 

 the goods at Waratuk I experimented a while with poison in a little side branch of 

 the cataract. I was so successful that I proposed to make a more systematic 

 attempt at Amatuk, where we stayed for the night. We poisoned above the 

 cataract on an island, but without great success. Below the north branch of the 

 cataract we tried once more on the morning of the 31st. Some of the water loses 



