BLACK SAW-BELLIED SALMON. 229 



watery plain ! They are caught with hook and line, 

 and their greediness is so great, that no art is neces- 

 sary to conceal the bait. The hook may be baited 

 with a piece of fish, bird, or animal, or merely their 

 entrails ; the pirai will dart at it the instant it is 

 thrown into the water, and seize it with eagerness ; 

 but it frequently happens that, with its sharp teeth, 

 it bites the line and escapes with the hook in its 

 mouth. We therefore surrounded the line, where 

 it was fixed to the hook, the length of two or three 

 inches, with tin or lead ; and though it had a 

 clumsy appearance, we were not less successful. 

 Some precaution is necessary, even after the fish 

 has been lifted out of the water, or it will inflict, in 

 its struggles, serious wounds ; the angler has there- 

 fore a small bludgeon ready, wherewith its skull is 

 broken. 



" Like the Balistes, several species of Silurus, 

 &c. the pirai utters sounds when raised above the 

 water ; they resemble the grunting of a hog. Its 

 vivaceousness is great, and it will live for hours after 

 it is taken out of the water. 



" The flesh is firm, white, and well-tasted ; never- 

 theless, many colonists scruple to partake of it, in 

 consequence of its greediness, and the report, which 

 appears but too well fi3unded, that when there is a 

 deficiency of other food they will not decline car- 

 rion ; it partakes, therefore, in that regard, of the 

 nature of several of its congeners. 



The length of these specimens was sixteen inches, 

 by the half in depth below the dorsal fin. The air- 



