218 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



Fig. 191.— Torpedo. 



give a name signifying thunder* Another is the Torpedo or 

 Electiic E.ay of our own shores {Fig. 191); and a third is 

 the Gymnotus or Electric Eel of the South 

 American rivers, whose shock is sufficiently 

 powerful to stun and even destroy horses. 

 Humboldt gives a most graphic picture of 

 the scene attending their capture ; the livid 

 yellow Eels swimming near the surface and 

 pursuing their enemies, the groups of Indians 

 surrounding the pond, and the horses with 

 their manes erect and eyeballs wild with pain 

 and fright, striving to escape from the electric 

 storm which they had roused, and driven 

 back by the shouts and long whips of the 

 excited Indians. 

 Vitality. — There are some fishes which die almost imme- 

 diately when taken out of the water, and others which exhibit 

 symptoms of life after a lapse of several hours. In reference 

 to this subject Mr. Yarrell remarks, " that those fish that 

 swim near the surface of the water have a his2;h standard of 

 respiration, alow degree of muscular irritability, great necessity 

 for oxygen, die soon — almost immediately — when taken out 

 of the water, and have flesh prone to rapid decomposition. 

 On the contrary, those fish that Hve near the bottom of the 

 water have a low standard of respiration, a high degree of 

 muscular irritability, and less necessity for oxygen ; they 

 sustain life long after they are taken out of the water, and 

 their flesh remahis good for several days."t The phenomena 

 connected with this law are highly interesting, and excite the 

 attention of the most incurious. Mackerel are so perishable 

 that they are permitted to be cried through London for sale 

 upon the Sunday. Herrings die so instantaneously on their 

 removal from the water, that the saying " dead as a herring," 

 has become proverbial. Perch, on the contraiy, live for some 

 hours : — " They are constantly exhibited in the markets of 

 Catholic countries, and, if not sold, are taken back to the 

 ponds from which they were removed in the morning, to be 

 reproduced another day. "J The Anglesey ]\Iorris, a small 

 fish of rare occurrence, has been known to survive after being 



* Milne Edwards' "Ele'mens," p. 281. 

 t Yarrell, \'ol. i. p. .S. 

 { Idem, vol. i. p. 22. 



