ABSTRACT
j. R. F O R S T E R ' S RESOLUTION J O U R N A L that those Dogs, who had eaten the raw Entrails or garbage of the fish, were the worst affected, Si had more severe symptoms than those, who had eaten only of the boiled fish, or its skin, which was very though 8c thick. The dog, which had been stung for experiment's sake with a poisoned arrow, ate 28 hours afterward, of the garbage of the fish &: was when he ate of it not yet in the least sick or anyways affected by the poisoned arrow, however it must be allowed, that the poison, which the Natives lay on very thick in the substance of a gum or Extract of some plant was nearly all gone off from the arrow employed in the Experiment, & we were very desirous of making the Experiment as soon as possible, therefore was the first arrow of the kind employed we got, & the next day we got enough better armed Si covered with the thick Substance; but then the disease broke out among the Dogs, who had eaten the Entrails of the Fish, & we therefore have postponed all Experiments till all Dogs are better. The arrows are of reed, have an Ebony point, to which another point of bone is tied by coire in a very curious manner, this coire is painted red & green, & the bony-point is smeared to the thickness of the back of a knife with this substance. I cannot omit to mention, that the Shark we caught the same day, with the poisoned Fish, when examined, had a bony poisoned point sticking in his head, shot through his very skull.1 The wound was quite healed & not the least mark on the outside left: to the bony point stuck still a part of the wooden point & the stuff with which they had been tied together, but both coire Sc wood were rotten; which in my opinion proves, that the fish are not affected by this poison, & that a Shark may be wounded in the very brains & however live & thrive well. This Shark was 9§ feet long.
