by a tapir, the western elephant, coming down to drink and to roll
himself in the mud; and the manati or river-cow would lift its black
head and small piercing eye above the water to graze on the leaves of
the coridore tree. They are shot from a stage fixed in the water, with
branches of their favourite food hanging from it; one of twenty-two cwt.
was killed not long ago. High up the river, where the alluvium of the
estuary is changed for white sandstone, with occasionally black oxide of
manganese, the fish are of delicious flavour; among others, the pacoo,
near the Falls or Rapids, which is flat, twenty inches long, and weighs
four pounds; it feeds on the seed of the _arum arborescens_, in
devouring which the Indians shoot it with their arrows: of similar genus
are the cartuback, waboory, and amah.

The most remarkable fish of these rivers are, the _peri_ or
_omah_, two feet long; its teeth and jaws are so strong, that it
cracks the shells of most nuts to feed on their kernels, and is most
voracious; the Indians say that it snaps off the breasts of women, and
emasculates men. Also the genus _silurus_, the young of which swim
in a shoal of one hundred and fifty over the head of the mother, who, on
the approach of danger, opens her mouth, and thus saves her progeny;
with the _loricaria calicthys_, or _assa_, which constructs a
nest on the surface of pools from the blades of grass floating about,
and in this deposits its spawn which is hatched by the sun. In the dry
season this remarkable fish has been dug out of the ground, for it
burrows in the rains owing to the strength and power of the spine; in
the gill-fin and body it is covered with strong plates, and far below
the surface finds moisture to keep it alive. The _electric eel_ is
also an inhabitant of these waters, and has sometimes nearly proved
fatal to the strongest swimmer. If sent to England in tubs, the wood
and iron act as conductors, and keep the fish in a continued state of