File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17537438544).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Photo hi/ Mazn Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons A non-poisonous snake, the mussurama, swallowing the deadly fer-de-lance after having killed it. The danger from poisonous snakes in South America is very slight, "much less than the danger of being run down by an automobile at home." certain spot in the river went into the water and one of these fishes bit off his little toe. On another occasion on the Unknown River, Mr. Cherrie went into the water thinking he could take his bath right near shore and one of the fish bit a piece out of his leg. One of the most extraordinary things we saw was this. On one occasion one of us shot a crocodile. It rushed back into the water. The fish attacked it at once and they drove that crocodile out of the water back to the men on the bank. It was less afraid of the men than of the fish. We were interested one day in a certain big catfish, like any other big catfish except that it had a monkey inside of it. I had never heard that a catfish could catch monkeys but it proved to be a fact. The catfish lives at the bottom of the water. The monkeys come down on the ends of branches to drink and it seems to be no uncommon thing for the fish to come to the surface and attack the monkey as it stoops to drink. Our Brazilian friends told us that in the Amazon there is a gigantic catfish nine feet long. The natives are more afraid of it than of the crocodile because the crocodile can be seen but the catfish is never seen until too late. In the villages, poles are stacked in the water so that women can get their jars filled with water, these stockades of poles keeping out the giant crocodile and catfish. I had never seen in any book any allusions to the fact 41

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