I. REPORTS ON THE EXPEDITION TO BRITISH GUIANA 

 OF THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY AND THE CAR- 

 NEGIE MUSEUM, 1908. ] 



Report No. i. 



SOME NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF FISHES FROM 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



By Carl H. Eigenmann. 



On August 22, 1908, I sailed by the Quebec S. S. Line from New" 

 York for Georgetown, British Guiana. I was accompanied by Mr. S. 

 E. Shideler as volunteer assistant. We returned to New York the 

 following December with a very large collection of fresh-water fishes. 

 The general object of the expedition was to collect fishes from some of 

 the rivers of South America flowing north from the Amazonian water- 

 shed. The particular object was to collect in some of the streams fall- 

 ing from the plateau of Guiana. The Potaro was selected. It arises in 

 an unexplored region on the plateau of Central Guiana. At Aruataima, 

 forty miles from the eastern edge of the plateau, there are cataracts. 

 This is the most distant and most elevated point at which collections 

 were made. At the Kaieteur Fall the Potaro River leaves the plateau 

 by a drop of seven hundred and forty-one feet. This fall with the 

 gorge below forms some of the most impressive scenery in the world. 

 The gorge is about fifteen miles long. There are numerous cataracts 

 below the Kaieteur, the last of which is the Tumatumari Cataract. 

 The Potaro empties into the Essequibo River near Crab Falls. 



Collections were made at the following localities : Essequibo River 



1 In order that the results of the explorations made by the author may, as soon as 

 possible, become available by the scientific world, it has been decided to publish diag- 

 noses of the new species as rapidly as they are worked up according to families. A 

 full monograph upon the fishes of British Guiana, thoroughly illustrated, is in 

 process of preparation. This paper will include a resume of the labors of Schom- 

 burgk, Miiller & Troschel, Gunther, and others. The successful results of Professor 

 Eigenmann's expedition will add a large number of species to those heretofore known 

 to occur in that region. The present paper was written in the Zoological Laboratory 

 of Indiana University and forms No. Iol of the Contributions from that laboraUry. 



W. J. Holland. 

 4 



