INTRODUCTION. Ill 



secured with the hand, or they are shot with the 

 arrow. The fish thus killed are by no means dete- 

 riorated in quality, and the number which are 

 caught is enormous. In the Brazil, as at the Rio 

 Negro, this mode of fishing is interdicted under a 

 penalty of two hundred 7nil reis, but it is not 

 strictly kept, nor is the fine enforced. 



I estimated the quantity of fish which I saw 

 taken in the Upper Demerara river, during one of 

 those fishing expeditions, at fifty hundred weight. 

 Mr. Hillhouse relates, that in less than an hour he 

 has taken two hundred and seventy pacu, averaging 

 seven pounds weight, with one hundred weight of 

 other fish. 



I have seen frequently a peculiar mode of fishing 

 practised among the Indians, when at the period that 

 the water in the rivers fell after the inundation, large 

 pools of water had collected on the savannahs or on 

 the islands. As soon as it was discovered that the 

 pool contained fish, then young and old set to with 

 calibashes, pots, and whatever would serve the pur- 

 pose, to empty the pool of its water. 



The Rio Negro was, at the end of March 1839, 

 on so low a level, that many of its tributaries 

 ceased to flow, and consequently the deeper parts of 

 the bed of the river formed pools. These pools, in 

 the river Anapara, were so stocked with fish, that 

 we rushed with cutlasses into the water and waged 

 war against the finny tribe on a novel method. 

 The number we secured by cutting them in pieces 

 was astonishinsr. 



