SALT-WATER FISHES. 451 



it entangles itself in pursuit of other fish ; for the guabine is per- 

 haps the only adversary it does not overcome ; it attains from 

 three to four feet. The bait placed in the nets is generally the 

 manioc root : several intoxicating plants are also used to poison fish 

 in pools and ponds. But, of all our fresh-water fish, the cascara- 

 dura is, by far, the most noted. Its length is from about six to ten 

 inches ; the body nearly prismatic, and covered with very hard 

 horny scales whence its name. The flesh is of an orange colour, 

 and very delicate ; it ought not to be confounded with the cat- 

 fish, which resembles it very much, but the flesh of which is white 

 and unsavoury. The cascaraduras are found in immense num- 

 bers in nearly all our large ponds, but particularly those in the 

 Caroni savannah, and the marshy parts of Nariva, where even a 

 small ravine bears the name of Cascaradura. 



Our salt-water fishes are far more numerous, and of much greater 

 importance, on account of their paramount utility, as articles of 

 food: there are also among them several which are naturally or may 

 accidentally become poisonous. Some of them are caught in the 

 open sea, others near the shore, and at the mouths of rivers or 

 creeks, and a few in rocky localities. The king-fish and Spanish 

 mackerel are taken with tan-lines, either in the gulf, or outside, 

 along the north coast ; they are caught chiefly during boisterous 

 weather. The anchovy (Caranx) is caught in the harbour ; it is 

 of the size of a sardine ; an immense quantity is taken, every 

 year, during the month of July; but they are migratory, and 

 disappear in about three weeks. The pike (Oentropomus) , salmon 

 (Otolythw), cod fish (JElacates) are also taken in the open sea. 

 The lebranche, mullets; the balaon, gar-fish, crapaud, and rays 

 are caught near the shore ; the former, at the mouths of rivers 

 and estuaries, or small creeks, which they ascend with the flow, and 

 generally retire from with the ebb ; drag-nets are then laid at the 

 entrance, and the lebranche easily caught ; the mullets are taken 

 with the cast-net. The balaou and gar-fish are commonly caught 

 at night by torch-light, or with the seine; carangues also, sometimes 

 in enormous quantities, with the same ; they are easily announced 

 by their gambols at the surface of the water, and not unfrequently 

 quite close in shore, so as to be then easily surrounded and dragged 

 to land. It is not, perhaps, amiss to mention here a case, wherein 

 about 3000 carangues were thus made prisoners and secured in a 

 net : about 500 were sent to the markets the first day, and from 



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