Year: 1867

Prof. Agasslz is lecturing in Boston
on the "Wonders of the Valley of the
Amazon" The following are notes of
his remarks on the above mentioned
subject:


Many tropical fishes are brilliantly
striped, spotted and colored. One has
broad, black plaids upon a golden
ground; one has each scale variegated
with yellow, blue and orange, SO that
the combined effect, when it darts thro'
the water, is indescribably brilliant
Some are red, some bright green, and
some purple or crimson stripes and
spots. They also have often curious
appendages about the nose, elongated
jaws, or nostrils, or fringes of feelers
that resemble English whiskers. One
fish has so short an upper Jaw that the
strong teeth with which the lower jaw
is provided have no corresponding ones
to meet them. This creature has feel
ers some feet in length, which it can
elevate like fishing rod, and thus as it
lies hid in the mnd, seize prey and drop
it into the waiting mouth below. One
family, the Chillichthys, has the power
of secreting SO much water as enables
it to leave the river and travel for miles
upon land. Professor Agassiz has often
seen them at this distance, and has even
known of their making their way up
the rough bark of trees. A gentleman,
our consul at Surinam, wrote him that,
with the same shot, he had brought
down parrot and one of those fishes.
They build nest something like that
of the stickle-bach, but larger and OF
coarser materials. Here they deposit
eggs and sit upon them. Another FAM
lily collect in the trunks of trees. A
hollow log has been sent him, in which
seven of these fishes, of good size, had
crowded themselves; they were so clos
ely packed that he was obliged to split
the log 10 order to remove them, and
he could not yet understand how they
had ever moved about in such a close
mass. Of one family of fish the fat has
the property of discoloring the flesh Of
any animal that feeds uponit, and some
times producing an eruption. The In
dians take advantage Of this to produce
the bright yellow spots which we often
see on green parrots. They feed the
birds on the fat of this fish, and the
eruption thereby produced changes its
feathers. There are in our cabinet a
number of parrots which we had classi-
fed as of different species on account Of
these yellow markings, which we now
| find to be mere product of this inge-
nuity of the savages.


One variety of fishes grows to great
size; it is often fifteen feet in length, and
is the beef of the Amazon valley, form
ing the principal food of the Indians.
Some of the fish are very formidable,
and much feared by travellers. They
have wide mouths armed with sharp
serrated teeth, and will quickly cut out
piece from the flesh of an animal. A
COW or mule that should fall into the
river would be devowered in the space
of an hour by these fishes. One family
strongly resemble the electrical eel with
which we are acquainted, only they are
more highly charged with electricity,
so that one of their shocksis too power
full for man willingly to bear. After
three or four strong shocks, the electric
lity is for time exhausted, so that the
natives, as Humbolt has told, when they
undertake to capture these eels, drive
mules into the river to receive the first
shock of electricity, and afterward Sc
cure their prey with comparative ease.