556 SUPPLEMENT ON 



and pursuing their enemy ; all these objects presented without 

 doubt the most picturesque assemblage imaginable. I re- 

 member the superb picture of a horse entering a cavern, and 

 frighted at the view of a lion. The expression of terror is not 

 stronger there, than what we witnessed in this unequal 

 contest. 



" In less than five minutes two horses were already drowned. 

 The eel, more than five feet long, glides under the belly of 

 the horse or mule ; it then make a discharge from the entire 

 extent of its electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, the 

 viscera, and particularly the plexus of the gastric nerves. It 

 is not, therefore, surprising that the effect it produces on a 

 large quadruped should exceed that produced upon a man 

 whom it touches only at one of his extremities. I have my 

 doubts, however, whether the gymnotus kills the horses im- 

 mediately. I rather believe that the latter, stunned by the 

 reiteration of the electric shocks, fall into a profound lethargy. 

 Deprived of all sensiblity they disappear under the water; the 

 other horses and mules pass over their body, and they perish 

 in a few minutes. Alter this commencement I was afraid that 

 the sport might terminate very tragically : I did not doubt but 

 that by degrees the greater part of the mules would have been 

 drowned. Eight francs is paid for each of them, if the master 

 happens to be known. But the Indians assured us that the 

 fishing would soon be at an end, and that nothing is to be 

 dreaded but the first assault of the gymnotus. In fact, 

 whether the galvanic electricity is accumulated in repose, or 

 the electric organ ceases to perform its functions, when 

 fatigued by too long use, the eels after a certain time resemble 

 discharged batteries. Their muscular motion is still equally 

 active, but they have no longer the power of giving energetic 

 shocks. When the combat had lasted a quarter of an hour, 

 the mules and horses appeared less affrighted ; they no longer 

 bristled up their mane, and the eye was less expressive of* 



