THE LUMINOUS SCOPELUS. 



3 2 9 



The C'HAKK (Sithtii) sa/vefinus), the well-known and delicately flavored SMELT (Osmerus 

 eft.-rliinus\ called also the Sriki.ivt; or SPARLING, the GRAYLING (7ftjwra//Kf rulgaris), the 

 VENDACE (Corfgonus Willoughbii), and the ARGENTINE (Scope/us Humboldtii), so useful 

 for bait, all belong to the same family as the salmon and the trout. 



The PIRAYA, or PIRAI, has been removed from the salmonidae and placed in another 

 family on account of certain structural differences. 



This fish is very plentiful in the rivers of Guiana and Brazil, where it swims in large 

 troops, and is, according to many accounts, a very unpleasant neighbor. It is a most 

 voracious being, with teeth nearly as sharply edged as those of the shark, and a bold- 

 ness little short of that fish's well-known audacity. It is said, according to Spix, that 



cf 



PRAYA. 



Piraya, 



if even so large an animal as an ox happens to get into one of their shoals, it is imme- 

 diately assailed, and bitten so severely that it may succumb under its injuries before it 

 can cross a stream thirty or forty feet in width. According to some authors, 

 one of the South American tribes are in the habit of placing their dead in the 

 streams, leaving them to the attack of the Piraya which in a single night will clear 

 away the whole of the soft parts, and leave a clean skeleton ready for their peculiar 

 mode of sepulture. Even living human beings seem to enjoy no immunity from this 

 hungry fish, but to be liable to severe bites while bathing. 



Be these stories literally true, or only exaggerations of reality, the jaws and teeth of 

 the Piraya are perfectly capable of inflicting such injuries as have been briefly described. 

 The teeth are nearly flat, triangular, and with edges sharp as those of lancets, and are 

 employed by the Macoushi Indians to sharpen the points of those fearful wourali- 

 poisoned arrows so well known to fame since they were brought by Mr. Waterton from 

 Guiana. A part of the jaw containing five or six teeth is carefully cleansed, a hole is bored 

 through the jaw-bone, and a string is passed through the hole and fastened to the edge 

 of the quiver. The arrows are readily sharpened by placing the points between any two 

 teeth and drawing them rapidly through the edges. There are now before me several 

 of these arrows, kindly given me by Mr. Waterton, and which have been sharpened by 

 this process. 



Ix a neighboring family is placed a very remarkable fish, called the LUMINOUS 

 SCOPELUS (ScopcUus steJMtus). 



