HISTORY OF 
ICHTHYOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN PERU 
Much of the territory is so remote and so difficult of access that transportation 
problems have kept the traveler out, and the products of the country in. Natural 
resources have yet, providentially, to be exploited in many regions; only those most 
easily removed, most in demand, or commanding the highest prices on world 
markets, such as gold, quinine, coca, or rubber, have successfully overcome these 
barriers. Just as soon as rubber or quinine were established on a paying basis in 
the Orient, their native South American provinces ceased to meet competition. 
Cotton, lumber, Brazil nuts, ivory nuts, etc. do well only when the demand abroad 
is very high. There has never yet occurred a world demand for such perishables as 
fish sufficient to overcome the costs of packing and shipping, despite their great 
abundance. 
Very few attempts have been made to explore the region in a scientific way. 
Nearly all the collecting has been done by laymen, incidentally, with the usual 
result that there is only one specimen of a kind, or specimens are improperly pre- 
served, with no information as to habitat, habits, or exact localities. Conversely, 
the descriptions are often written by men who have never seen their subjects in a 
living state, and whose work is done in the shelter of an overseas museum. No one 
has done for fishes what Bates was able to accomplish for the Lepidoptera during 
his eleven years’ residence, and devotion solely to that subject. 
The 1830’s were marked by the expedition of von Tschudi, but the results not 
of great value since he dealt with the entire fauna of Peru. 
During the 1840’s Castelnau made his well-known expedition to the interior 
of Peru and down the Amazon, giving much the greater time to Brazil, dividing 
his time between various branches of Zoology, and one section of his report to 
fishes. 
The 1860’s found John Hauxwell in that region which has been under dispute 
among Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, the lower Peruvian Amazon about 
Pebas and the Rio Ambyiacu. He was in correspondence with Bates in Brazil and 
with Cope in Philadelphia. 
During this decade, Edward Bartlett transmitted specimens from Xeberos 
and the Huallaga to Giinther at the British Museum; also specimens were recorded 
by Giinther from Higgins, the localities the same. This decade may be considered 
the most noteworthy in Brazilian ichthyology by reason of the Thayer Expedition 
led by Louis Agassiz. The main expedition traveled up the Amazon as far as 
Manaos, and one of its members just missed our territory, Bourget having been 
sent by the emperor, Dom Pedro IT as far as Tabatinga. 
At about this time Cope received a collection from Robert Perkins, taken ‘‘be- 
tween the Huallaga and the Rio Negro.”’ Also Prof. James Orton made his first 
geological and biological excursion, traveling from Quito down the Napo to the 
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