80 NIGHTINGALES IN RUSSIA. 



drawn out of the water, it had been put into the same tray in 

 which it was brought to Calabozo. Remaining thus in the 

 same water it was accustomed to, galvanic electricity had not 

 been altered. We shall see, however, in the course of this 

 Memoir, that the wounded gymnoti, that is to say, those of 

 less power, are much more instructive in the inquiry into 

 galvanic phenomena than the very active gymnoti, for many 

 shades escape the eye of the observer when the electric tor- 

 rent takes as impetuous a course across good conductors, as 

 across those which are more imperfect. 



When one has seen the eels knock down a horse, and de- 

 prive it of all sensibility, he is naturally afraid to touch them 

 the moment they are brought out of the water. So strong, , 

 in fact, is this dread among the people of the country, that 

 none of them could muster up resolution to disengage the 

 gymnoti from the cords of the harpoon, or to transport them 

 to the little holes filled with water which we had made along 

 the bank of the Cano de Bera. It needed all our fortitude 

 to receive ourselves the first shocks, which certainly were not 

 very agreeable. The most energetic surpassed in power the 

 most painful electric shocks I ever remembered to have re- 

 ceived, accidentally, from a large and completely charged 

 Leyden jar. From that time we readily conceived that, with- 

 out doubt, there was no exaggeration in the story of the In- 

 dians, when they assert that persons who are swimming are 

 drowned when one of these eels attacks them by the leg or 

 the arm. A discharge so violent is fully capable of depriving 

 a man for many minutes of all use of his limbs. If the gym- 

 notus should glide along the belly or the chest, death might 

 even follow instantaneously the electric shock ; for, as we have 

 before observed, the most noble parts, as the heart, the ga- 

 stric system, the cceiiac plexus, and all the nerves that de- 

 pend upon it, would at once be deprived of their irritability. 

 A feeble electricity augments the vital forces, — a strong de- 

 gree extinguishes them entirely. — Voyage de Humboldt et 

 Bonpkmd'y Zoologie, p. 54. 



NIGHTINGALES IN RUSSIA. 



" Seeing several stalls apparently covered with wheat, I 

 approached to examine its quality, but was surprised to find 

 that what had the appearance of wheat consisted of large 

 ants ' eggs, heaped for sale. Near the same stalls were tubs 

 full of pismires, crawling among the eggs, and over the per- 



