The Indian has also discovered the means of poisoning the fish of the
lakes and pools, as well as the birds of the air. He extracts the
poison from a certain liana--the paullinia pinnata--which he calls
timbo. To do so, he collects a few pieces, about a yard long, and
mashes and soaks them in water, which soon becomes discoloured with the
milky poisonous juice of the plant. This he carries in a calabash, and
pours out on the water. In about half an hour, all the smaller fish,
over a wider space than that which he has sprinkled with the juice, rise
to the surface, floating on their sides, with their gills wide open. So
powerful is its nature, that but a slight quantity appeal's sufficient
to stupify them. Some time afterwards the larger fish appear; and even
for twenty-four hours afterwards a number rise floating dead on the
surface. The fish are evidently suffocated by the poison.