PLENTIFUL FISH 
Immense quantities of fish could be seen in the river. 
No sooner had we made camp than we got out lines and 
hooks of all sizes, which we baited with pieces of toucinho . 
One end of the bigger lines we made fast to trees, as the 
fish we often caught were so powerful that on several 
occasions they had dragged us into the water and we lost 
not only the fish but the line as well. We had great sport 
that night and caught quantities of trahira (Macradon 
trahira), not unlike a giant salmon and quite as good to 
eat; and also some surubim (Platystoma Lima), a large 
fish belonging to the herring family. The surubim was 
flat-headed, and not unlike the pintado fish which I have 
described in a previous chapter. It had thin scales over 
the body, and an abnormally powerful lower jaw, with 
vicious-looking, sharply pointed teeth on the edge of the 
upper and lower lip. These curiously situated teeth were 
far apart, and so firmly inserted in the hard lips that it 
took a violent blow to remove them. 
Although after a few minutes we had killed fish 
enough to last us, had we been able to preserve it, for some 
weeks, my men sat up the greater part of the night hauling 
quantities to the bank. The excitement each time a fish 
80 or 100 pounds in weight was hauled out of the water 
was considerable. The wild yells and exquisite language 
whenever one of my men was dragged into the water kept 
me awake the entire night. 
We left that camp at 7.80 on July seventeenth, the 
minimum temperature having been 66° Fahrenheit during 
the night. Heavy globular clouds covered the entire sky. 
We were then in a region extraordinarily rich in rubber; 
quantities of Siphonia elastica trees were to be seen. It 
made one’s heart bleed to think that nobody was there to 
collect the riches of that wonderful land. 
The river flowed in short sections from northwest to 
north-northeast, barring a long stretch of 4,000 metres, 
when we came to a great basin 600 metres wide, with 
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