Evermann and Kevdnll — Fish from Central Ecuador. 105 



one would not dare to doubt that the country contains some great subter- 

 ranean lakes which conceal these fishes, because the specimens that live 

 in the small rivers around about are very few in number. A part of these 

 rivers ougiit to communicate with these subterranean cavities, and it is 

 very probable that the first pimelodes which have populated these caverns 

 have remounted there against the current. In the province of Quito the 

 subterranean roaring which accompanies the quaking of the ground, the 

 masses of rocks wliich one would expect to cave in from the arched roof 

 upon which he walks, the immense quantity of water which emerges from 

 the ground in the thinnest portions; then the volcanic explosions and a 

 number of other phenomena show that the entire ground of this plateau is 

 undermined. But, if it is easy to conceive tiiat tlie vast subterranean bas- 

 ins are filled with water and that they can nourish fishes, it is less easy to 

 explain liovv these animals are aspirated through the volcanf)es, elevated 

 to 7,800 feet and vomited, sometimes through the craters and again by 

 means of o|)enings in the sides. Would it l)e possi])le to sujipose that the 

 pimelodes live in the subterranean basins at the same height at which they 

 are seen emerging? How can their origin be conceived in a position so 

 extraordinary, in the side of a cone so often heated, and perhai)s in part 

 produced through the volcanic fire? What can be the method by which 

 they are cast out with the form not disfigured, which would be expected, 

 by these volcanoes, the highest and most active in the world, causing from 

 time to time convulsive movements, during which the release of heat ap- 

 pears less considerable than one would expect it to be. The tremblings of 

 the ground do not alvvaj's accom-pany these phenomena. Perhaps*in the 

 different caverns that occur in the interior of a volcano the air is from time 

 to time condensed, and that it is this condensed air which aids to raise the 

 water and fishes; perhajjs they emerge from a concavity removed from 

 those that give out the volcanic (ire; perhaps, finally, the clayey masses in 

 whicii these animals are enveloped protect them from the action of an ex- 

 treme heat. 



