114 BATTLE WITH ELECTRICAL EELS. 



horses and mules. A contest between animals of so 

 different an organization presented a very striking spec- 

 tacle. The Indians, provided with harpoons and long 

 slender reeds, surrounded the pool closely, and some 

 climbed up the trees, the branches of which extended 

 horizontally over the surface of the water. By their 

 ^vild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevented 

 the horses from running away and reaching the bank of 

 the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, defended 

 themselves by the repeated discharge of their electric 

 batteries. For a long interval they seemed likely to 

 prove victorious. Several horses sank beneath the vio- 

 lence of the invisible strokes which they received from 

 all sides, and stunned by the force and frequency of the 

 shocks, they disappeared under the water. Others, pant- 

 ing, with mane erect, and haggard eyes expressing anguish 

 and dismay, raised themselves, and endeavoured to flee 

 from the storm by which they were overtaken. They 

 were driven back by the Indians into the middle of the 

 water; but a small number succeeded in eluding the 

 active vigilance of the fishermen. These regained the 

 shore, stumbling at every step, and stretched themselves 

 on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and with limbs 

 benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. 



In less than five minutes two of the horses were 

 drowned. The eels being five feet long, and pressing 

 themselves against the belly of the horses, made a dis- 

 charge along the whole extent of their electric organ. 

 They attacked at once the heart, the intestines, and the 

 coeliac fold of the abdominal nerves. The horses were 

 probably not killed, but only stunned. They -were 

 drowned from the impossibility of rising amid the 



