PACU OF GUIANA. 239 



likewise in its salted state it is not to be despised. 

 During our expedition in the interior, we were al- 

 ways deliglited when we reached the regions which 

 the pacu frequented; and when well dressed, ac- 

 cording to the colonial fashion, with cassanipe^ a 

 kind of ketchup prepared from the juice of the 

 cassada-root, it forms an excellent viand. 



" The morocoto^ cartahac^ and a species of pacu 

 which we found in the river Parama, and which 

 differed only from the common pacu in its colour 

 being black, constitute a group of fishes which re- 

 semble each other by structure, teeth, habits, and 

 their being phytivorous. One of the most delicious 

 among this division is the raorocoto or osihu of the 

 Warraus ; it inhabits only the estuaries, and does 

 not occur in fresh water; it would fall, therefore, 

 out of the limits of the present descriptions ; but as 

 it is so closely allied with the pacu, I shall mention 

 at least its dimensions and general appearance. The 

 teeth, which consist of fourteen in the upper jaw, 

 and are placed in a double row in the fore part, are 

 all distinctly molar or grinding teeth. It attains 

 a length from about twenty-five to twenty-eight 

 inches, and is twelve inches in depth. The gill- 

 covers consist of three strong bones, the dorsal fin 

 of sixteen rays, the ventral of eight, and the anal of 

 twenty-four, the caudal is compressed and thin ; in 

 every other respect it resembles the pacu, and is 

 extremely fat and delicious. During the month of 

 August, when they feed upon the fruit of the cara- 

 macata, a tree of large size and very hard w^ood, 



