GAME FISHES OF SOUTH AMEEICA 



hauled upon the sand-bar, wherp its dimensions could be admired. No 

 wonder it towed us at steamboat speed so long. No wonder it had put 

 our endurance to the severest test. The fish was over twelve feet in 

 length and must have weighed nearly one thousand pounds. It was 

 encased in an armour of scales of flinty hardness that would easily have 

 resisted a buUet or caused it to glance.' 



The streams of South America abound in weird and really 

 remarkable catfishes, some of which build nests ; one bears its 

 young in its mouth, whUe one is game for the angler. This is the 

 lau lau, fairly common in the Essequibo Eiver in British Guiana. 

 A friend told me of his adventures with this fish, which I published 

 at the time in the St. Nicholas Magazine : 



' The Americans made their way in a trading-schooner up the Esse- 

 quibo River, in British Guiana, to where the Mazaruni flows into it. 

 Erom this point the journey was continued in a canoe rowed by a native 

 crew. At a spot f uUy sixty mUes from the mouth of the river, camp was 

 made on a white, sandy beach. 



' Among a number of curious fishes these American travellers had 

 noticed in the Essequibo was a catfish called by the natives the lau lau ; 

 and as several had been seen by them, preparations were made for their 

 capture. A large Une about two himdred feet in length was baited with 

 fish and carried out into the stream by a small boat, a crotched stick being 

 thrust into the sand on the beach, to which the Hne was attached to serve 

 as a telltale, and around this a number of the party sat waiting for a bite. 



' In a little while there was a sudden jerk, and the line began running 

 out in the hands of one of the Caribs. Twenty or thirty feet of leeway 

 was given to the rushing fish, and then several of the men grasped the 

 rapidly stiffening hne. As it came taut they braced themselves and j erked 

 the hook into the fish. For a second there was no demonstration ; then 

 a violent plunge tore the Hne from their hands, hurUng them 

 upon the sands, and an enormous fish rose bodily out of the water, 

 faUing with a thundering crash and darting off at hghtning speed. Know- 

 ing that when the slack-in was exhausted the line probably would not 

 stand the strain, it was quickly unfastened from the stick and attached 

 to a small canoe, into which several of the fishermen sprang. This was 

 not done a moment too soon, for with a rush the hne straightened out. 

 The boat seemed endeavouring to dive to the bottom, and then away it 

 dashed, hurling the spray high in air behind the invisible steed. 



' For an eighth of a mile the great fish towed the canoe with undimin- 

 ished speed, darting here and there among the sand-banks, now turning 



365 



