of an Oa'c////) Hunter 



103 



this beautiful fish. It is very symmetrical in form, 

 about two feet and a half in length, and is covered 

 with scales of a peculiar shape and enormous size, 

 each one larger than a crown, and glittering like 

 burnished silver. I have seen the same fish grow 

 to a size of seven feet long- and two feet six 

 inches in girth. When cooked it proved somewhat 

 unsavoury, and considerably less palatable than beau- 

 tiful. 



About mid-day on the sixth day from starting we 

 arrived at the foot of the Andes, and about four 

 o'clock in the afternoon, after great cheering and salu- 

 tation from one lot of boatmen to another, we landed 

 at the port called Botijas — no very inviting place, but 

 at least a relief to get liberty from the cramping con- 

 finement of the canoe. A large sheet-iron warehouse 

 and a few miserable thatched huts are all that the 

 inhabitants can boast of to make up their village. 

 This place is proved the most unhealthy. One or 

 two Colombians are placed here by the merchants of 

 the interior to look after the despatch of cargo by the 

 canoes. These poor fellows are only able to stay 

 about a month, and then seek the higher ground to 

 recruit themselves from the terrible malarial fever 

 which inevitably fastens itself upon them. All the 

 produce going down the river in canoes arrives here 

 on mules, and some hundreds may be seen at a time 



