up the Rio Negro. 



139 



their habits and ways watched from some conven- 

 ient ambush. 



The native methods of taking fishes and large 

 game was extremely interesting. A popular one 

 was by the bow and arrow, even fishes as large as 

 the gigantic Studis being taken in this manner. 

 Some of the party caught several manatees, which, 

 being too heavy and large to preserve, were skinned 

 \ and the skeletons saved. One sine^ular find was a 

 log taken from the bottom, the hollow of which was 

 literally packed with small fishes of a certain kind 

 called Anojas by the natives. 



Some extremely interesting discoveries were made 

 by Agassiz in the young of fishes. He employed 

 native children to collect all the small or young 

 fishes they could find, and the result was the dis- 

 covery that in many cases the young of one species 

 resembled the adults of others. An instance of this 

 was found in a new billfish that while young passed 

 through a stage resembling the adult Hemirham- 

 phus which has a long lower jaw. 



In October the scientific head-quarters at Teff6 

 was broken up, the party moving on, having obtained 

 not only a fine collection of fishes, but reptiles, birds, 

 shells, botanical specimens, insects, and treasures of 

 all kinds. 



Agassiz was most impressed by the peculiar 

 distribution of fishes. He says : After setting my 

 whole party well under way in Teffe, I made the 

 very instructive excursion with Major Estolano to 

 the Lago do Boto, a small sheet of water by the 

 side of his sitio on the banks of the main course of 



