2, MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



to such an acquaintance I recall standing one exciting morning on the brink of a 

 small pool, which my Indians said contained fishes. It was not more than fifty 

 feet across and was back-water left by the receding Essequibo. The Indians 

 pounded poisonous hiari roots, tied them into bundles, and the boys then swam 

 through the pool with them over their backs, and thus mixed in the poison. Soon 

 one species, then another, and still others, which I had only known as mummies, 

 were resurrected from the depths of that pool, and I danced about its margin with 

 delight to see them in their vivid living colors and incidentally to embalm them 

 in their turn for future reference. On another glorious working day, which lasted 

 from 6 A.M. to 12:30 A.M. of the day following, I secured over seventy species of 

 fresh- water fishes, more than forty of which were characins. 



Robert Schomburgk noted eighty-three species of fishes in his travels about 

 Guiana, only thirty of which came from the region covered by this paper. I secured 

 more than twice as many species in a few hours. Richard Schomburgk reported 

 a total number of one hundred and forty-eight species, of which about eighty 

 were recorded from the area covered by this report. In all, onlj' one hundred 

 and sixteen species have been hitherto recorded from the rivers of British Guiana, 

 discharging into the Atlantic, while three hundred and sixty species are 

 recorded in the present paper. Of these I myself collected all but twenty- 

 seven. Of the twenty-seven species I have examined all but Rhamdia laukidi, 

 Rhamdia arekaima, and Pinielodus altipinnis. Rhamdia laukidi and arekaima are 

 probably forms of R. clarias. No one has seen them since Schomburgk's day, and 

 he did not preserve specimens. Pinielodus altipinnis was described from a small 

 specimen said to have come from Demerara. The species said to be P. altipinnis 

 is abundant in the lower Amazon. 



With the exception of the few cases in which labels were lost in transit, all of the 

 specimens here recorded are assigned to exact localities. Very few definite localities 

 had been previously put on record. "Demerara," "Essequibo," "Rupununi," 

 or "British Guiana," have been the usual designations. Nannostomus beckfordi 

 Gimther and Heterogramma steindachneri Regan are among the few species the 

 definite habitats of which were known. 



Science owes a debt to a number of persons in and out of Guiana, who 

 very generously assisted me in various ways. The officers of the Quebec 

 Steamship Co., Ltd., transported our collecting outfit and our collections free of 

 all charge, and made generous reductions from the regular passenger tariff from 

 New York to Georgetown and return. Messrs. Sprostons, Ltd., conveyed us and 

 our baggage free to all points within the colony reached by their boats, and put 



