3X2 NATURAL HISTORY. 



to believe that in some species there is a poison-gland situated behind the 

 pectoral fin and connected with these spines, but the subject has never 

 been adequately investigated. 



Most of the horned pouts are of moderate size, but their flesh is highly 

 esteemed by many people. In the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi basin 

 larger species (cat-fish) occur, which may reach a weight of one or two 

 hundred pounds. The sheat-fish of Europe is even larger, and specimens 

 of three and even four hundred pounds are sometimes taken, thus making 

 it the largest fresh-water fish, the sturgeons excepted, of that continent. 

 All the cat-fishes are characterized by the presence of slender filaments, or 

 ' barbels,' around the mouth, which doubtless serve as organs of touch. 



It is in South America, and especially in the Amazon and its tributaries, 

 that the cat-fishes acquire their greatest and strongest development. In 

 our northern waters these fish are smooth-skinned, but there they are cov- 

 ered with bony scales, or large plates, and are so wonderfully protected 

 that one on seeing them at once recalls the knights of the Middle Ages, 

 clad in full armor — helmet, beaver, hauberk, gauntlets, greaves, and all. 

 Our northern cat-fishes will live for a considerable time removed from their 

 element, but they are excelled in this respect by their tropical relations. 

 When the pools in which they live begin to get low in the dry season, 

 some species will leave them and travel overland to a larger pool, sometimes 

 occupying whole nights on the journey. The flesh of these forms is rather 

 dry, but very palatable, and the Indians catch them in enormous quantities. 



In the Nile a species occurs which has electric powers, like those of the 

 torpedo already mentioned ; but the electric organ is distributed all over the 

 body, instead of being localized as in the other form. 



Amono- the most celebrated of all fishes are the electric eels of South 

 America. Mr. Bates gives the following account of their habits as he 

 found them on the upper Amazon : " We walked over moderately ele- 

 vated and dry ground for about a mile, and then descended (three or four 

 feet only) to the dry bed of another creek. This was pierced in the same 

 way as the former watercourse, with round holes full of muddy water. 

 They occurred at intervals of a few yards, and had the appearance of 

 having been made by the hand of man. The smallest were about two 

 feet, the largest seven or eight feet, in diameter. As we approached the 

 most extensive of the larger ones, I was startled at seeing a number of 

 large serpent-like heads bobbing above the surface. They proved to be 

 those of electric eels, and it now occurred to me that the round holes were 

 made by these animals working constantly round and round in the moist, 

 muddy soil. Their depth (some of. them were at least eight feet deep) 



