1 1 8 INTRODUCTION. 



for six or eight minutes, wliat fish passes over them 

 at that time are sure to fall a prey to their voracity ; 

 they seize them at once hy the belly and drag them 

 on shore, where they are frequently deposited while 

 they continue their pursuit. The Indians, who are 

 aware of this, watch their success in ambush, and 

 secure what the otters have brought ashore. The 

 arapaima or pirarucu^ the largest fresh- water fish 

 of those regions, is not safe from their attacks ; and 

 I have been informed by the Indians, that this giant 

 of the rivers is sometimes attacked by the otters en 

 masse ; so much I know from personal observations, 

 that they secure haimuras {Erythrinus) from ten 

 to twelve pounds in weight. 



Even the jaguar, the tiger of the new world, is 

 ranged among the depredators upon the fishes ; and 

 as every Indian will inform the inquirer, his at- 

 tempts to take fish prove successful. He may be 

 seen frequently prowling on sand-banks or along 

 the low banks of rivers, and as the fish approach 

 the shallows, he dexterously knocks them out of 

 the water with his paw ; but, that in order to entice 

 them to the surface, he drops some of his saliva on 

 the water, is no doubt an assertion which wants 

 confirmation. I have been astonished at the feats 

 of strength which a jaguar displayed in one of his 

 fishing depredations. While we were sojourning at 

 Curassawaka, a settlement of Caribs on the Rupu- 

 nuni, we were much annoyed by a jaguar which 

 prowled almost nightly about the settlement. One 

 evening the Indians, who had been out fishing, 



