364 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



standing erect, and wild looks, expressing anguish, raise them- 

 selves and endeavour to flee from the storms by which they 

 are overtaken. They are driven back by the Indians into the 

 middle of the water ; but a small number succeeds in eluding 

 the active vigilance of the fishermen. These regain the shore, 

 stumbling at every step, and stretch themselves on the sand, 

 exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs benumbed by the 

 electric shock of the gymnoti. 



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

 eel, being five feet long, and pressing itself against the belly 

 of the horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of its 

 electric organs. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines, 

 and the plexus cceliacus of the abdominal nerves. It is nat- 

 ural, that the effect felt by the horses should be more powerful 

 than that produced upon men by the touch of the same fish at 

 any one of his extremities. The horses are probably not 

 killed, but only stunned. They are drowned from the impos- 

 sibility of rising from amid the prolonged struggle between the 

 other horses and the eels. 



" We had little doubt, that the fishing would terminate by 

 killing successively all the animals engaged ; but by degrees 

 the impetuosity of this unequal combat diminished, and the 

 wearied gymnoti dispersed. They require a long rest, and 

 abundant nourishment, to repair what they have lost of gal- 

 vanic force. The mules and horses appear less frightened ; 

 their manes are no longer bristled, and their eyes express less 

 dread. The Indians assured us, that when the horses are 

 made to run two days successively into the same pool, none 

 are killed the second day. The gymnoti approach timidly the 

 edge of the marsh, when they are taken by means of small 

 harpoons fastened to long cords. When the cords are very 

 dry, the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish into the air. 

 In a few minutes we observed five eels, the greater part of 

 which were but slightly wounded. Some were taken by the 

 same means towards the evening. 



