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HUNTING AND FISHING IN THE PROVINCE OF AMAZON. 
iiiarketUy prefer the life of hunters and fishers to the les.s exciting and 
more settled vocation of breeders of domestic animals. From his carlie.st 
} ears, the young iajniyo (Indian of the Amazon Valley) accompanies his 
lather either on the open river or on the inundated plains, where, in the 
cool shade of large trees, or amid the snbmerged tops of palms which arc 
juiirored in the smooth dark water, they quietly lie in ambush, patiently 
awaiting the proper moment for throwing their harpoons into the broad 
back of the lura-rucn, a fish of 10 to 13 feet long, covered (as if it were 
annour) Avith big scales bordered by a sliarp scarlet line. When caught, 
it IS dragged on land, opened up the Avhole length of its back, the 
vertebrsB taken out, and the meat salted and dried in the sun. In its 
fresh state it is not very palatable; but Avhen prejjared in this way, 
as it is largely consumed by both rich and poor from Para to the frontiers 
Poru, it makes quite an abominable dish, decidedly inferior to cod-fish. 
And this is not the worst of it. As the meat is very hygroscopic, and 
the atmosphere, especially in the rainy season, saturated with aqueous 
Ampours, the foul-smelling slices have to be laid out in the sun from 
time to time; and as the vendeiros (shopkeepers) in small towns like 
Mauaos seem to think no spot more appropriate for that operation than 
Ihe pavement at their doors, their neighbours and passengers have 
the pleasure of at least smelling the nasty fish, if they have been lucky 
enough to escape it at table. 
Very different is the lamantin or manati, a fresh-water cetacean, 
Avhich, despite its Portuguese name of peixe-boi (ox-fish), derived fi-om 
its broad snout resembling that of an ox, is no more a fish than its 
gigantic cousin of the sea, the sperm-whale. It abides especially in 
the quiet lakes on the borders of the large iWers, Avhich are coA’ered 
AAoth a ijrofusion of long reed-grass and wild rice, the chief food of 
the peixe-boi. Its flesh is fat and nice, and, when properly prepared, 
decidedly reminds one of pork. 
Although fishing is of far greater importance than hunting to 
the inhabitants of these countries, for the simple reason that the 
hitter requires powder and lead, and a far costlier Aveapon than their 
OAATi boAV* or simple iron hook, 1 will spare the reader the infliction 
of a dry ichthyologic register of all the species and A’-aideties that people 
the main stream and its endless ramifications. Their number has been 
Bows and aiTows are used everywhere on these rivers for shooting fish and turtle ; 
hut only wild Indians otnjdoy them for hunting on laud. 
