Innumerable snails are seen in their shells in the woods, plains, and the borders of lakes, but are eaten by no human being in Paraguay. Empty snail-shells, burnt to ashes in the fire, are used by the Guaranies for whitening walls, when stones for making lime are not to be found. From the white shells of certain snails, the Vilelas make little round beads, perforated in the middle, which they sell to the other Indians. The Abipones hang round their necks great heavy strings of these beads, and both men and women think the more they are loaded the finer they are. On the shores of the river Uruguay, there is an odd kind of snail, larger than a man's fist, which the Indians roast in its shell, and devour with avidity. I do not recollect any thing worth mentioning, in regard to shells and shell-fish, if there are any wretched ones to be found here. WAYS OF FISHING. After treating of fish, a few observations should be made concerning the various methods of fishing. In the city of Buenos-Ayres the Spanish fishers enter the river Plata on horseback, near the shore, as far as it is shallow. Two of them lay hold of each end of a rope, on which a net is either spread, or closed again, filled with fish; in a few hours they carry to shore numbers of noble fishes, which are immediately put to sale. The Payaguas and Vilelas subsist chiefly upon fish. For fishing they use a very small net, two ends of which they fasten before them, as you would an apron, at the same time holding the two others with their hands. Thus accoutred they jump from the shore into the water, and if they spy any fish at the bottom, swim after it, catch it in the net, which they place under its body, and carry it to shore. The Indian who has remained beneath the water such a length of time that you believe him inevitably drowned, you will, with astonishment, behold emerging at a great distance, laden with booty. These men are more properly divers, than fishers. If the transparency of the water, as in the river Salado, renders the fish visible, the Paraguayrians pierce them with an arrow, a spear, or an iron prong. The wood Indians catch fishes more usually by craft and artifice than by arms. Sometimes by throwing in sticks, and boughs of trees artfully entwined together, they dam up a river in such a way that, though the fish can enter this enclosure, they are unable to get out again. In other places they throw the plant yçipotingi, which creeps up trees, or the leaves or fresh roots of the caraquata, well pounded, into the water, which intoxicates the fishes to such a degree that they may be caught with the hand as they float on the surface. They often lash the water with the leaves of a certain tree which grows in great abundance near the river Atingỹ, the juice of which is said to be fatal to fishes. The Indians sometimes catch fishes with hooks made of wood or reeds. The common, and indeed the only instrument for fishing