xviii] THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 285 



fifty. Insects, there were none at all ; and other good birds 

 excessively rare. 



■ My canoe is now getting ready for a further journey up 

 to near the sources of the Rio Negro in Venezuela, where I 

 have reason to believe I shall find insects more plentiful, and 

 at least as many birds as here. On my return from there 

 I shall take a voyage up the great river Uaupes, and another 

 up the Isanna, not so much for my collections, which I do 

 not expect to be very profitable there, but because I am so 

 much interested in the country and the people that I am 

 determined to see and know more of it and them than any 

 other European traveller. If I do not get profit, I hope at 

 least to get some credit as an industrious and persevering 

 traveller." 



I then go on to describe the materials I was collecting for 

 books on the palms and on the fishes of these regions, and 

 also for a book on the physical history of the Amazon 

 valley. Only the " Palms " were published, but I give here 

 a few copies of the drawings I made of about two hundred 

 species of Rio Negro fishes, which I had hoped to increase 

 to double that number had I remained in the country. 



The two first figures {Cynodon scombroides and Xiphostoma 

 lateristrigd) belong to the family Characinidae, a group which 

 abounds in the fresh waters of tropical America and Africa, 

 where it replaces the carps (Cyprinidae) of Europe and the 

 Old World generally, though not very closely allied to them. 

 Many of the species are very like some of our commonest river- 

 fish, such as gudgeons, dace, roach, tench, and bream, and I 

 have drawings of no less than sixty-five species of the family. 

 They are all, I believe, eatable, but are not held to be fishes 

 of the best quality. 



The next figure (Pimelodus holomelas) is an example of 

 the family Siluridae, which is found in the fresh waters of all 

 parts of the world. The cat-fishes of North America and 

 the sturgeons of Eastern Europe belong to it. I obtained 

 thirty-four species on the Rio Negro, many being of a large 

 size. They are generally bottom-feeding fishes and are 



