284 Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 



ambush, and secure what the Otters bring ashore. They attack some- 

 times fish of considerable size. We watched a pack of Otters at the 

 Great Cataracts of the Corentyn, where, at the basin which one of the 

 cataracts formed, they appeai'ed to carry on their pursuits with great 

 success. One had secured a Haimura at least from ten to twelve 

 pounds weight, and carried it in its mouth to a rock which was 

 partly over water. Here it began devouring its prey without 

 taking much notice of us, although we were not twenty yards from 

 it on the opposite shore. It did not care for our shouting ; its suc- 

 cess was however disputed by the Indians, who got into the canoe 

 and paddled so rapidly towards the rock, that the Otter saw itself 

 obliged to retreat and to leave the better half of the fish to the In- 

 dians. Although the Otters were numerous round the rock, none 

 of them showed any intention to share the prey with the successful 

 hunter or to dispute its possession. 



I have already alluded to their having their holes on the edge of 

 rivers, sheltered by the impending bank. Every rock in the vicinity 

 of their residence bears the mark of their excrements ; and their 

 feeding-places are so devoid of vegetation, if we except the larger 

 bushes and trees, that they cannot be mistaken, even if the num- 

 ber of scales and fish-bones did not point out the frequency of their 

 visits. A complete path leads up to these places, which, in conse- 

 quence of their ascending and descending in single file, is hollowed 

 out. 



The young remain for a considerable time under the protection of 

 their parents, the mother teaching them to plunge and dive at ap- 

 proaching danger. Abb^ Ricardo, who wrote in the middle of last 

 century a treatise on the South American Otter, and who, in order 

 to study their manners the more effectively, caused a large cage pond 

 to be erected in Caraccas *, relates, that while the parent Otters are 

 in existence, they do not suffer the young to propagate their spe- 

 cies. I cannot vouch for the truth of this assertion, nor could I 

 make myself sufficiently understood to the Indians to elicit their 

 corroborative testimony to that effect ; but thus much is certain ; — 

 that in the same community there are Otters of all sizes, and appa- 

 rently of three or four different generations. 



We had entered the upper Essequibo by its tributary the Cu- 

 yuwini, and passed at the foot of a ridge of mountains, when we ob- 

 served on a large ledge of rocks a family of Otters, consisting of 

 about fifteen, including old and young. At our approach they broke 



* His treatise is said to be still in existence and in good preservation in 

 the cathedral of Caraccas. 



