Gold in British Guiana. 293 
members of the fauna of the primeval world. How rich 
in suggestive associations are Sororieng or the " Swallow's 
Nest ;" Taquari or the " Water Jar," for whose tutelary 
genius the wandering Indian still preserves a lingering 
reverential awe; the magnificent natural pyramid Ata- 
raipu or the " Devil's Rock ;" or that singular basaltic 
pillar which so closely resembles a stricken monarch of 
the forest that the beholder involuntarily looks for its 
fallen crown on the ground beneath, ere he realises that 
he is gazing upon a column of stone. 
The enthusiastic angler may travel to the rivers of 
Norway or the lakes of Canada, but he will not find 
better sport, or one hundredth part of the variety of 
fishes which our waters afford. From a host of others 
which take the lure freely may be singled out the delicious 
pacu, which the Indian disdains to angle for, but shoots 
with the arrow' as it darts like a flash of light through 
the foaming waters of the cataracts. Then there is that 
fish which HUMBOLDT and others describe, and which 
might almost be thought fabulous if it were not really 
one of our commonest, which at certain seasons leaves 
the ponds which are drying up and travels over the dry 
land in search of others, which builds a floating nest 
of leaves and grass, and whose parental solicitude is 
taken advantage of by the wily Creole to effect its 
capture by exciting it to leap from the water into 
his hands held ready to seize it. We have also the gym- 
notus, which, if the fisherman is minded to try the 
experiment, will intimate to him the instant of its taking 
the hook by a powerful discharge of electricity from its 
own body. 
Of feathered game there is immense variety : the 
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