MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 555 



least of intoxicating and benumbing the lish. These come 

 to the surface of the water when they have been poisoned by 

 this means. As the horses, driven here and there, through 

 a pond or pool, produce the same effect upon the alarmed 

 fishes, the Indians, confounding cause and effect, apply the 

 same denomination to the two kinds of fishery. 



" While our host was explaining to us this strange system 

 of fishing, a troop of horses and mules arrived. The Indians 

 had made a sort of enclosure around them, and pressing them 

 closely on all sides, forced them to enter the water. I shall 

 but imperfectly depict the interesting spectacle presented to 

 our view by the combat of the eels against the horses. The 

 Indians, provided with very long reeds and harpoons, placed 

 themselves around the basin. Some of them mounted upon 

 trees, whose branches overhung the surface of the water. 

 They all prevented, by their cries and the length of their 

 reeds, the horses from attaining the shore. The eels, stunned 

 and confused by the noise of the horses, defended themselves 

 by the reiterated discharge of their electric batteries. For a 

 long time they seemed likely to gain the victory over the 

 horses and mules ; these were seen in every direction, stunned 

 by the frequency and force of the electric shocks, to disappear 

 under the water. Some horses, however, rose again, and in 

 spite of the active vigilance of the Indians, gained the shore 

 exhausted with fatigue ; and their limbs being benumbed by 

 the electric commotions, they stretched themselves at full 

 length upon the ground. 



" I could have wished that a skilful painter had had the 

 opportunity of seizing the moment when the scene was most 

 animated. The groups of Indians surrounding the basin ; 

 the horses with their manes bristling, terror and anguish 

 depicted in their eyes, trying to escape the storm which sur- 

 prises them ; the yellowish and livid eels, which, like huge 

 aquatic serpents, are swimming on the surface of the water, 



