862 
Rockstone, on the Essequibo River. 
Rockstone consists of a hotel, the rail- 
road, steamer terminal station, a small 
store, and a number of workmen's cot- 
tages. All goods for the gold mines of 
the interior and all rubber coming from 
the interior are transferred here to avoid 
the cataracts in the Essequibo below 
Rockstone. All fever patients coming 
from the interior and all travelers going 
into the interior must remain here over 
night. The Essequibo is here divided 
into two channels by Gluck Island. At 
the time of our visit rocks were exposed 
at the Stelling and a short distance below 
Rockstone. At the bend of the river 
above Rockstone there was an extensive 
sandbar exposed. 
I engaged two Indians, who were on a 
rubber boat waiting for a crew, to go up 
the Rupununi. We worked faithfully 
along the Stelling and below, with the 
poorest success I ever had anywhere. 
We could see fishes galore. One espe- 
cially (Chalceus macrolepidotus), lus- 
trous plumbeous with the most gorgeous, 
maroon-colored fins, flaunted its colors 
in my face, but it was impossible to get 
at it. At 10 we came to the hotel, | com- 
pletely worn out, for this was the place 
where we were told we should catch 
fishes. 
As we were waiting for breakfast a 
band of Indians came along, a man and 
about six girls and women. After par- 
leying, it turned out that they were going 
to poison a creek. We asked them to 
wait at the station till we could join them 
and rushed through breakfast. 
After skirting Gluck Island some time 
they stopped at a creek so small that I 
thought it could have no fishes (see pic- 
ture, page 865). Two of the Indian 
women scraped a small depression into 
the ground, cut two sticks and used them 
as pestles and the depression as a mortar, 
in which they pounded a basketful of 
leaves toa pulp. They then built a fence 
across the creek with palm _ leaves, 
scraped the mud from their mortar into 
balls, and squeezed and washed them in 
the water some distance up the creek. 
The Indians and I were soon knee deep 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
in water and mud, picking up the fishes 
that.at once came to the surface. The 
little ones died in numbers on the banks ; 
the bigger ones revived. 
I ate dinner with a somewhat better 
feeling, but determined to use our big 
150-foot net on the sandbank after din- 
ner. The porters were all gone when we 
got to the station, but I picked up two 
negroes, took one of our Indians, and 
Mr. Kingsland, the agent at Wismar, 
went along. The crew played the most 
interesting tunes with their paddles. 
Whenever they became tired the leader 
would get all of them to hit the boat 
with their paddles at one or another part 
of the stroke with surprising results. 
We landed on a place that looked as 
though it had been made for us. It was 
a shallow bay on the upper end of the 
sandbank, 150 feet across and with sand 
bottom. We stretched the big net across 
and hauled out at the head of the bay. 
Fish were flopping in every direction; 
dozens jumped over the net. At the criti- 
cal moment enthusiasm got the better of 
even our Indian, who ran ashore with the 
top of the net and let out half tke catch. 
The next day till evening was devoted 
to sorting and preserving fishes. Prochi- 
lodus, a sucker-like Characin, gave us 
much trouble. Full-strength alcohol and 
formalin injected did not keep these 
from beginning to decay. In the even- 
ing we seined on the rocks of the Stelling 
and in the railroad mentioned above. At 
the Stelling we caught so many Hemu- 
doras carinatus, a catfish with a row of 
spines along the side, and allies, all of 
whom erect their spines when caught, 
that it took us a long time to untangle 
them from the net. The pectoral spine 
is provided with retrorse hooks, and 
every spine must be individually disen- 
tangled from the net. 
On the second of October we went to 
the Rockstone sandbar with our two 
Indians. We were soon joined by seven 
porters from Rockstone, who helped us 
pull the large net at the lower end of 
the sandbar. The chief things we se- 
cured were examples of Geophagus 
carrying young in their mouths. The 
