FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES OX THE ORINOCO 161 



eight feet below. As the boat moved slowly along we be- 

 came aware of masses of black, flitting shadows under- 

 neath, and soon made out vast shoals of fish of various sizes 

 that literally covered the bottom. There were rays, elec- 

 tric eels, catfish, and piranhas by the thousands, besides 

 many others which we could not identify; the reason for 

 their congregating in this shallow place is hard to guess. 



The boulders on the bank were dotted with what we at 

 first took to be lichens; but examination showed them to 

 be night-hawks (Chordeiles rupestris) of a light gray color, 

 which clung to the rounded tops silent and immovable, as 

 if carved out of stone. When we paddled across to the 

 island a short while after, we found scores of others, but 

 these were the females squatting on one or two fragile 

 speckled eggs which had been laid in shallow hollows scooped 

 out of the warm sand. They were very tame and permit- 

 ted me to walk up to within a few feet of them; then they 

 took wing and with noiseless, graceful flaps flew a short 

 distance away and dropped back on the sand. 



Flocks of red-and-blue macaws flew screaming across the 

 river in quest of some favorite tree in which to spend the 

 night, far in the depths of the forest; after them trailed 

 parrots of various sizes and colors, always flying two by two. 

 Herons flapped lazily up-stream, and snake-birds perched on 

 snags looked down at the masses of fish below, apparently 

 regretting their limited capacity for eating. Exciting as 

 this naturally must be to a field-naturalist, it was but a fore- 

 taste of what we were to find each day farther up the river. 



As the morning of January 24 sped by, the water of the 

 Orinoco began to assume a dark color, and by four o'clock 

 that afternoon we had reached the mouth of the Atabapo; 

 an hour and a half later we had ascended the clear red 

 water of that river for a distance of three miles, and tied 

 the piragua to the ledge below San Fernando. 



San Fernando de Atabapo is the last settlement on the 

 Orinoco and was the base from which we hoped to make 

 our dash to the unexplored regions about Mount Duida. 



