4-58 Piscidia Fryihrina used in inebriating Fishes. 



on the principle of the harpoon. The shaft, in consequence, 

 remained as a float on the water, and not only contributed to 

 weary out the animal, but showed his pursuer which way 

 he fled, and thus enabled him to seize it." — Bishop Heber. 

 ( Sent by J. G. Sept. 1830.) 



[O vjis lo 



In the British West Indies, among other Substances employed 

 for the capturing of. Fishes by Inebriation, is the Bark of the 

 Root of the Dogwood Tree (Piscidia Erythrlna), common in 

 most of the islands; and on the medical properties of which 

 I communicated a paper, in 1812, to Mr. Nicholson, who in- 

 serted it in the 33d volume of his Journal of Natural Philo- 

 sophy, p. 145. The best time for collecting this bark is at the 

 period of full moon ; and the best season spring, in the month 

 of April, when the dogwood is in full flower, and before the 

 expansion of the foliage : the dogwood being one of the few 

 periodically deciduous trees in the West Indies, and not re- 

 covering its foliage before the month of March. It is at this 

 season that the young roots are cut for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing the bark, which is stripped from them, coarsely bruised, 

 and mixed with temper lime and the lees of the still-house, and 

 put into small baskets. The spot selected for this sport is 

 usually some small and sheltered bay on the leeward side of 

 the island, where the boats being launched, and one or two 

 negroes seated in each, furnished with a basket of the bark 

 prepared as above, they pull out into the middle of the bay; 

 where, resting occasionally on their oars, the negroes with 

 the baskets gradually wash out their contents, which soon 

 communicate a dusky brown hue to the water for a consider- 

 able space, at the same time destroying that transparency 

 which is so remarkable in the West Indian seas. The effect 

 is almost instantaneous ; and, to one unaccustomed to the 

 sport, astonishing. For myself, I can only say that few things 

 ever made a stronger impression upon me ; and, although I 

 was but once a spectator of it, the recollection is nearly as 

 vivid as when I witnessed it, now nearly a quarter of a century 

 ago. Hardly had the discoloration of the water indicated 

 its being impregnated with the narcotic preparation, before 

 the surface of the bay was covered with multitudes of the 

 smaller fishes (silks, roach, hinds, &c), floating in perfect in- 

 sensibility, and some of them even dead, offering themselves 

 a ready prey to those in the boats, who took them up in 

 baskets as they floated alongside ; while the larger fish, as 

 the conger eels, &c, swam about in mad disorder, lifting their 

 heads above the infected fluid, and striving, but unable, to 

 escape from its pestiferous influence. 



