IXTRODUCTION. 123 



the lower Essequibo to tliese dykes in order to 

 procure tlie fisli called pacu, which are caught in 

 large numbers, slightly salted, and dried on the 

 rocks, and sold at the colony at about a shilling 

 each ; however, I do not think that fifteen hundred 

 are brought at present to the coast. The morocoto 

 or osihu^ a species which belongs to the same divi- 

 sion of fishes as the pacu, frequenting only the 

 estuaries of rivers, chiefly those of the Orinoco and 

 the adjacent streams, while the pacu belongs exclu- 

 sively to the fresh-water rivers where the tide has 

 no influence, is likewise much prized as an excel- 

 lent article of food, both when fresh or salted, and 

 large numbers of them are occasionally brought to 

 Georgetown. If the fisheries were carried on in a 

 more active way, and not as a pastime, or merely on 

 a tour of pleasure to give some change to a mono- 

 tonous and indolent life, it would not only become 

 productive of considerable benefits to those who 

 embark in it, but open another resource of the 

 colony, which at present lies entirely neglected. 

 Of great importance is the fact, that there exists in 

 the Rupununi one of the largest fresh-water fishes, 

 namely, the arapaima or pirarucu, which attains 

 occasionally a length of twelve feet, and weighs up- 

 wards of three hundred pounds. It is used fresh 

 and salted, and afibrds the means of subsistence to a 

 large number of inhabitants on the Rio Negro and 

 the Amazon, which it likewise inhabits. Were the 

 fishing-ground on the Rupununi attended to during 

 the dry season, an abundance of that fish might be 



