ETJBCTRICJLL FISHES. 118 



you with di aw from the coast; and how is the imperturbablo 

 apathy of the ignorant people to be vanquished, when they 

 are not excited by the desire of gain ? 



The Spaniards confound all electric fishes under the name 

 of tembladores* There are some of these in the Caribbean 

 Sea, on the coast of Cumana. The Guayquerie Indians, 

 who are the most skilful and active fishermen in those 

 parts, brought us a fish, which, they said, benumbed their 

 nands. This fish ascends the little river Manzanares. It 

 is a new species of ray, the lateral spots of which are 

 scarcely visible, and which much resembles the torpedo. 

 The torpedos, which are furnished with an electric organ ex- 

 ternally visible, on account of the transparency of the skin, 

 form a genus or subgenus different from the rays properly 

 BO called.f The torpedo of Cumana was very lively, very 

 energetic in its muscular movements, and yet the electric 

 shocks it gave us were extremely feeble. They became 

 stronger on galvanizing the animal by the contact of zinc 

 and gold. Other tembladores, real gymnoti or electric eels, 

 inhabit the Rio Colorado, the Guarapiche, and several little 

 streams which traverse the Missions of the Chayma Indians. 

 They abound also in the large rivers of America, the Ori- 

 noco, the Amazon, and the Meta; but the force of the 

 cm-rents and the depth of the water, prevent them from 

 being caught by the Indians. They see these fish less fre- 

 quently than they feel shocks from them when swimming or 

 bathing in the river. In the Llanos, particularly in the 

 environs of Calabozo, between the farms of Morichal and 

 the Upper and Lower Missions, the basins of stagnant 

 water and the confluents of the Orinoco (the Rio Guarico 

 and the caTws Rastro, Berito, and Paloma) are filled with 

 electric eels. We at first wished to make our experiments 

 in the house we inhabited at Calabozo ; but the dread of the 

 ihocks caused by the gymnoti is so great, and so exag- 



Literally " tremblers," or "producers of trembling." 

 t Cuvier, Regne Animal, vol. ii. The Mediterranean contains, ac- 

 cording to M. Risso, four species of electrical torpedos, all formerly 

 confounded under the name of Raia torpedo ; these are Torpedo narke, 

 T. unimaculata, T. galvanii, and T. marmorata. The torpedo of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, the subject of the recent experiments of Mr. Todd, 

 it, no doubt, a nondescript species. 



VOL n. t 



