256 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



their fish as best they could ; and, with yells from 

 their occupants, the boats darted forward. But the 

 race was not to the swift, for the pace was set by the 

 stream which carries the poison ; and when the first 

 excitement had subsided, the boats glided gently and 

 silently forward. 



The next few bends of the river presented the sad 

 sight of the day, for here were numbers of fry lying 

 dead on the surface of the water. At the place where 

 the tuba water is poured into the stream, not only is 

 there, of course, enough poison to affect the whole 

 river, but the liquid mixes equally with the surface 

 and the bottom of the river. Later the specific gravity 

 of the tuba water, which is considerably heavier than 

 that of river water, asserts itself, and the poison is 

 carried along the bottom of the river. The small 

 fry that flee for safety to the shallows then escape 

 unharmed ; but, at first, a number of them are killed. 

 It is the sight of these poor little dead fishes that 

 is responsible for the general, and totally incorrect, 

 opinion that tuba fishing kills all the fry in the 

 river. 



The poison affects different species of fish in differ- 

 ent ways. Perches, probably through seeking the 

 shallows with the fry, escape altogether ; the mud fish 

 find safety in burying themselves; while the little 

 buntal, a small fish with a peculiar power of inflating 

 itself, floats dead to the surface at the first taste of 

 the poison. But the great majority of the fish seek 

 safety in flight. 



Keen eyes in one boat mark, under an overhanging 

 branch, the lips of a fish which cannot breathe the 



