Ofi a new Species of Pimelodus. 335 



fcanocs. On the estates of the marquis of Selvalegre the 

 Cotopaxi had thrown a quantity so great, that their putre- 

 faction spread a fetid odour around. In 169I the almost 

 extinguished volcano of Imbaburu threw out thousands on 

 the fields in the environs of the city of Ibarra. The putrid 

 fevers which commenced at that period were attributed to 

 the miasma which exhaled from these fish, heaped on the sur- 

 face of the earth and exposed to the rays of the sun. The 

 last time that Imbaburu ejected fish was on the 19th of June 

 IfigS, when the volcano of Cargneirazo smik, and thousands 

 of these animals enveloped in argillaceous mud were thrown 

 over the crumbling borders; 



The Cotopaxi and Tungurahua throw out fish, sometimes 

 by thecrater which isatthetop of these mountains, sometimes 

 by lateral vents, but constantly at 2500 or 2600 toifcs above 

 the level of the sea : the adjacent plains being 1300 toiscs 

 high, one may conclude that these animals issue from a 

 point which is 1300 toises more elevated than the plains ou 

 which they are thrown. Some Indians have assured me 

 that the fish vomited by the volcanoes were sometimes still 

 living in descending along the flank of the mountain : but 

 this fact does not appear to me sufTiciently proved : certain it 

 is, that among the thousands of dead fish that in a few hourj 

 are seen descending from Cotopaxi with great bodies of cold 

 fresh water, there are very few that are so much disfigured 

 that one can believe them to have been exposed to the action 

 of a strong heat. This fact becomes still more striking when 

 we consider the soft fiesh of these animals, and the thick 

 smoke which the volcano exhales during the eruption. It ap- 

 peared to me of verv great importance to descriptive natural 

 history to verify sufficiently the nature of these animals. 

 All the inhabitants agree that they arc identical with those 

 which are found in the rivulets at the foot of these volcanoes, 

 and called prcmiadillai* : they are even the only species 

 offish that is discovered at the height of aI)ove MOO toiscs 



• This word is an indifferent or cor.temptuous diminutive, indicating abun- 

 dant, prejjnant, fruitful, easily taken, but nut a pleasing or desirable object. 

 The name is purely Ppani=h and not Indian, of course could never have been 

 ^nplicd to any fish used as food by Spaniards.' — Translator. 



iu 



