A Savannah Pihe by Night. 
285 
80S. Among' remaining fish to be found here is the equally brilliant 
Osteoglossum bicirrhosum Spix., which the Macusis call Arowana, with 
the edges of its scales also shining in red, blue, and purple, the 
Xiphostoma Cuvieri Spix., the Myletes latus Müller, Trosch., Pygopris- 
tis fumarius Müller, Trosch., Serrasahno aureus Spix. and several repre- 
sentatives of the genera Ciclila, C renicichla and Pygocentrus. 
809. This very same day that had dawned so full of interest for me, 
was to close in just the same way. It was late in the afternoon that I 
was yet in front of our house busily engaged in cleaning the head and 
preparing the skin of the Rudis when 1 noticed some dark columns of 
smoke rising in the distant north-west, but troubled myself no further 
until Sororeng again drew my attention to them by the statement that 
the hunters of a distant settlement over there had fired the savannah to 
drive the deer out of the high grass. The sun was just beginning to 
disappear, and the black clouds, now increasing in extent, were already 
coloured yellow and reddish, when there soon developed before our 
astonished gaze a night picture that can only be compared with Achra- 
mucra, but which it is just as impossible to describe in detail. All I can 
do is to plan an outline, a sketch of the really thrillingly beautiful 
scene of the burning savannah : it served to represent the real article 
as depicted in Cooper’s prairie fires that had so often filled me with 
silent rapture and inward awe. The eye could now distinguish in the 
far north-west several pillars of fire that gradually joined into one 
single column w r hich, sharply defined on the dark background of the 
clouded sky, shed a grev-yellow tint upon the overcast masses of cloud 
as well as the gloomy Makarapan and Paearaima Ranges, and made them 
look like pallid spectral giants emerging from the sombre layers of 
atmosphere. As quick as thought I might say, the huge mass of fire rolled 
itself along before the wind like the billows of an evenly moving ocean, 
and a moment later, the hills or groups of trees that had only just recently 
been illumined were swallowed up hi the profound darkness. The column 
of fire now hurried on its way up the wooded slope of a hill or mountain, 
until it disappeared just as quickly on the side turned away from us, and 
thereupon, as was to be seen by the flare striding ahead, soon showed itself 
afresh on another hill, or, it separated just as suddenly, into a number of 
smaller tentacles of flame which then, like giant Wills-o’-the-wisp, seemed 
to dance around the intervening black spaces, that were presumably 
swamps, bogs, rivulets or some of the larger oases. The separation, 
however, did not last long. The open tentacles soon closed in, and joined 
again, when as a single stream of fire it continued anew its destructive 
course over hill and dale until it finally disappeared behind one of the 
larger masses of mountains. So far, the thrillingly beautiful scene had 
been keeping a fair distance away ; yet with the rapidity of lightning the 
right wing of the fire column kept rolling closer and closer in our 
direction. The strong lights and shadows became more glaring, the 
black pillars of smoke more sharply defined; and now was to be heard 
the dull crackle of the giant grasses and 6 to 8 ft. high reeds as they 
were being split by the heat, the uproar changing every minute into the 
regular indiscriminate and deafening musketry fire of a battle in full 
swing. Forming an impassable barrier to the fiery element on the south- 
