wound you with their teeth or fins. THE MBÙZU. In muddy pools, and even in rivers, you see fish very like European eels, and not eaten by the Indians, on account of their snake-like appearance. Our eating one of these fishes caused a report amongst the Indians that Europeans fed upon serpents. Whether these fishes are really eels, or of the serpent kind, I will not pretend to determine. THE RIVER-CRAB. Although Paraguay abounds in various kinds of choice fish, it is almost destitute of crabs. I had long heard that some very small crabs, not like those of the sea, but like those in the rivers of Germany, were found in certain streams in the territories of the Uruguay; and I myself saw some which were brought to our table in the Uruguayan town of Concepçion; but they were pygmies in comparison with ours, and might be called mere shadows, and embryos of crabs. After travelling, sailing, and fishing so much in Paraguay, as I never saw any other cray fish beside these, it is my opinion that there are none, or very few indeed. But there are a great variety of sea-crabs. RIVER-TORTOISES. The rivers, lakes, and streams, abound in tortoises, but not of that kind the shells of which are valuable in Europe, and fit for working. No sooner did we cast a hook into the river than a tortoise would bite, but was always rejected by us; for in the greater part of Paraguay these animals are eaten neither by Spaniards nor Indians. The only useful part of tortoises in Paraguay is their great shells, which are used for pots and plates by the common people. LAND-TORTOISES. Whilst the Abipones, Guaranies, and other Indians with whom I was acquainted, not only abstain from eating tortoises, but even detest the very idea of such a thing; the Chiquitos, on the contrary, make them their chief food during the greater portion of the year. They laboriously hunt after these animals, which are marked with various colours, in the woods and rocks, that provision may not fail them during those months in which their territories are inundated by an annual flood; for as there is more wood and mountain than plain country there, the deficiency of pasture renders it impossible that as many oxen can be raised and killed, for the support of the Indians, as in the colonies of the Guaranies and Abipones. The tortoise, therefore, supplies the place of beef among the Chiquitos. SNAILS.