A NATURALISTS BPXPERIENCES IN BRITISH GUIANA 
SEINING ON THE SANDBAR 
swing, in great contrast to yesterday’s 
dilly-dallying. At I p. m. we were at 
Erukin, a sandy, clear creek that I 
wanted poisoned. We had fished here 
at night with poor success on the way up. 
William thought it was too big and swift 
to poison, but I had them stretch the net 
across the mouth, sent the pounders up- 
stream, and William, some other Indians, 
and myself took up stations at intervals. 
I stood in the creek in a patch of sun- 
light, where every grain of sand could 
be seen on the bottom. Soon fishes came 
down the stream in distress, and when 
the poison was exhausted we found we 
had a number of novelties in our dip- 
nets, and the 15-foot net at the mouth of 
the creek had caught nearly all as they 
came down. 
At 2:30 we were moving again, and 
when, near 4 o’clock, William cried out 
“Kangaruma” all paddles stopped for a 
BELOW THE 
867 
Photo by C. H. Eigenmann 
AMATUK CATARACTS 
moment, and then dashed on to land us 
a few minutes later at the town. 
For about a month I had not slept out 
of hearing of the roar of cataracts. 
‘Tumatumari, Kangaruma, Amatuk, Wa- 
ratuk, Tucui, Kaieteur, and Holmia are 
all on cataracts or falls. In fact they are 
all places where goods have to be trans- 
ported on account of them. I had so 
much “stuff” that it took more than one 
trip for the 12 carrying-Indians that had 
come down with me. 
The Potaro Gorge is one of the re- 
markable features of the world. The 
river is lined with trees so tall they could 
only thrive in a region free from strong 
winds. The sides of the gorge are rug- 
ged, and the whole recalls the Rhine or 
the Yosemite. We saw no one from the 
time of striking into the woods behind 
Potaro Landing till we reached Holmia. 
The entire stretch is utterly uninhabited, 
