274 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Airao with a cargo of them.^ I needed not, how- 
ever, have put myself to this expense, for my men 
proved excellent fishermen, and we rarely passed a 
day without fresh fish. They seldom used any 
other weapon for killing fish than the bow and 
arrow ; and what I more admire in this than the 
certitude of their aim is the acuteness of their 
vision. They would spy out a fish deep in the water 
and tell with certainty what sort it was, when I 
could distinguish nothing ; and it was interesting 
to see them steal silently after a fish, in a montaria, 
until the fish, approaching near enough the surface, 
was pierced by the arrow which had been held in 
readiness. It was in the gapo (inundated forest) 
and at the mouths of the igarapes that fish were 
taken in this way. To give you an idea of the 
expertness of these men, I may mention that one 
morning in the space of half an hour two of them 
killed twenty fish in an igarape with their bows and 
arrows, and the least of these was more than I 
could eat at a meal. My hunter also got us some 
excellent breakfasts and suppers with my gun. 
He used to enter the forest before daybreak and 
surprise the birds still asleep in the trees, when I 
could no more discern them than I could the fish in 
the waters ; in this way he shot us several large 
wild-fowl, and especially mutiins (curassows). These 
birds are as large as a turkey, but with shorter 
feathers, neck, and legs, and when well cooked are 
excellent eating. One which we had served us all 
for supper, and there was enough left for my break- 
fast next morning. Another bird called inambii. 
^ Turtle are very rarely met with in the Rio Negro, but only on some 
of its lower branches. The pirarucu is a fish confined wholly to white water. 
