THE CARIBE FISH, 
167 
Swimmers, from wliom it often bites away considerable 
pieces of flesh. The Indians dread extremely these caribes ; 
and several of them showed us the scars of deep wounds in 
the calf of the leg and in the thigh, made by these little 
animals. They swim at the bottom of rivers ; but if a few 
m'ops of blood be shed on the water, they rise by thou- 
sands to the surface, so that if a person be only slightly 
mtten, it is difficult for him to get out of the water without 
receiving a severer wound. When wc reflect on the numbers 
these fish, the largest and most voracious of which are 
°nly four or five inches long, on the triangular form of their 
ffiarp and cutting teeth, and on the amplitude of their re- 
tractile mouths, we need not be surprised at the fear which 
tile caribe excites in the inhabitants of the hanks of the 
''-pure and the Orinoco. In places where the river was 
Ver y limpid, where not a fish appeared, we threw into the 
'rater little morsels of raw flesh, and in a few minutes a 
Perfect cloud of caribes had come to dispute their prey. 
The belly of this fish has a cutting edge, indented like 
a saw, a characteristic which may he also traced in the 
Serr a-sahneg, the myletes, and the pristigastres. The pre- 
sence of a second adipous dorsal fin, and the form of the 
eeth, covered by lips distant from each other, and largest 
’H the lower jaw, place the caribe among the serra-saknes 
j ta mouth is much wider than that of the myletes of Cuvier. 
ts body, toward the hack, is ash-coloured with a tint of 
?i'een, but the belly, the gill-covers, and the pectoral, anal. 
i ln< i ventral fins, are of a fine orange hue. Three species arc 
Pl, 0 ^ ill the Orinoco, and are distinguished by their size, 
v be intermediate appears to he identical with the medium 
species of the piraya, or piranha, of Marcgrav.* The cari- 
^to has a very agreeable flavour. As no one dares to 
]' a “be where it is found, it may be considered as one of the 
sjveatest scourges of those climates, in which the sting of 
e mosquitos and the general irritation of the skin render 
®nse of baths so necessary. 
I We stopped at noon in a desert spot called Algodonal . 
my companions while they drew the boat ashore and 
I went along the 
to get a near view of a group of crocodiles sleeping ffi 
Salmo rhornbeus, Linn. 
b 6 occupied in preparing our dinner. 
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