204 OSTEOGLOSSUM. 



the first corial to come so near that one of the In- 

 dians was enabled to give him a stroke with a 

 cutlass ; a few more arrows were discharged at him, 

 and he became an easy prey. The question was 

 now how to get him into a corial, as we estimated 

 his length at least six to seven feet, and his weight 

 not less than a hundred and fifty pounds. He was 

 floated into comparatively shallow water, and when 

 one of the corials was got under him, the Indians 

 who were wading in the water shuffled the corial 

 with the fish and water in it to and fro, until the 

 water had got mostly out and the craft commenced 

 to float again ; the rest was bailed out, and under 

 the huzza of our Indians we returned with our 

 prize to Curassawaka, highly delighted with our 

 sport of hunting the arapaima." 



Fig. 2, on Plate X., represents the scales of 

 Sttdis, from the Brazilian Fishes. 



D. 38— A. 30— Ribs, 32 pairs— Vert. 73. 



OSTEOGLOSSUM, Vandelli. 

 This remarkable genus is also ranged by Cuvier 

 and Agassiz among the Herrings, and they are fol- 

 lowed by Swainson, who places it as the first aber- 

 rant form in the same family. The original spe- 

 cies, 0. bicirrhosum, Vand,, Ichonosoma of Spix, is 

 figured in the Brazilian Fishes from the river Ama- 

 zon, and is represented as large-scaled, of brilliant 

 colours, and wuth the anal fin continuous with the 

 tail, or appearing, in short, as if there was no real 



