THE CAKTBE FISH. 1G7 



swimmers, from whom it often bites away considerable 

 pieces of flesh. The Indians dread extremely these caribes ; 

 and several of them showed us the scars of deep wounds in 

 the calf of the leg and in the thigh, made by these little 

 animals. They swim at the bottom of rivers ; but if a few 

 drops of blood be shed on the water, they rise by thou- 

 sands to the surface, so that if a person be only slightly 

 bitten, it is difficult for him to get out of the water without 

 receiving a severer wound. When we reflect on the numbers 

 of these fish, the largest and most voracious of which are 

 only four or five inches long, on the triangular form of their 

 sharp and cutting teeth, and on the amplitude of their re- 

 tractile mouths, we need not be surprised at the fear which 

 the caribe excites in the inhabitants of the banks of the 

 A pure and the Orinoco. In places where the river was 

 very limpid, where not a fish appeared, we threw into the 

 water little morsels of raw flesh, and in a few minutes a 

 perfect cloud of caribes had come to dispute their prey. 

 The belly of this fish has a cutting edge, indented like 

 a saw, a characteristic which may be also traced in the 

 serra-salmes, the myletes, and the pristigastres. The pre- 

 sence of a second adipous dorsal fin, and the form of the 

 teeth, covered by b'ps distant from each other, and largest 

 in the lower jaw, place the caribe among the serra-salmes . 

 Its mouth is much wider than that of the myletes of Cuvier. 

 Its body, toward the back, is ash-coloured with a tint of 

 green, but the belly, the gill-covers, and the pectoral, anal, 

 and ventral fins, are of a fine orange hue. Three species are 

 known in the Orinoco, and are distinguished by their size. 

 The intermediate appears to be identical with the medium 

 species of the piraya, or piranha, of Marcgrav.* The can- 

 bito has a very agreeable flavour. As no one dares to 

 bathe where it is found, it may be considered as one of the 

 greatest scourges of those climates, in which the sting of 

 the mosquitos and the general irritation of the skin render 

 the use of baths so necessary. 



We stopped at noon in a desert spot called Algodonal. 



I left my companions while they drew the boat ashore and 



were occupied in preparing our dinner. I went along the 



beach to get a n?ar view of a group of crocodiles sleeping in 



* Salmo rhombeui, Linn. 



