314 NATURAL HISTORY. 



one of these creatures alive to Cambridge. He kept it in a bucket on the 

 deck of the ship, and a sailor, seeing it coiled up on the bottom, mistook 

 it for a large bar of soap, and straightway proceeded to wash his hands 

 with it, when the shock and the surprise knocked him flat upon the deck. 

 The story is often told that the natives capture these forms by driving 

 horses into the pools occupied by them, and thus exhausting their electric 

 powers, but it would appear that this is rarely if ever the case. 



The shock given by the electric eel is stronger than that from the 

 torpedo or electric cat-fish ; but still it is not sufficient to numb and disable 

 horses and men, as the story alluded to would have it. These electric eels 

 reach a length of about six feet ; the} 7 have two pairs of batteries, one 

 above, the other below, the tail, and the nerves supplying them are very 

 large and numerous. Structurally they are greatly different from the 

 electric cat-fish already mentioned. 



The carp family is of enormous extent, there being nearly two thou- 

 sand species in the rivers of the world, about two hundred and sixty being 

 recognized in North America. South America and Australia have none. 

 They are mostly small forms of but little economic importance, and many 

 of its members are familiar under the common names chub, shiner, min- 

 now, dace, and roach. Our cut illustrates a few of the more interesting: 

 or important forms. 



At the top of the figure is the carp. Originally a native of China, it 

 has been introduced into Europe and America, where it is valued as the 

 best food fish of the family. It multiplies with astonishing rapidity, and 

 is really a valuable accession to the fislied-out ponds of the eastern states. 

 Still, we would not advise one to try them cooked in the German fashion: 

 " Stewed in water first, afterward in a gravy made of brown bread, a 

 small portion of sugar or of molasses is added, and then they put in 

 enough of brown beer to make gravy sufficient to cover the fish." 



Long domestication has resulted here as elsewhere in the production 

 of a large number of varieties. The ' leather-carp ' has lost its scales, 

 while in the 'mirror-carp' (shown at the right centre of Figure 300) some 

 of the scales are enormously developed. 



A near relative of the carp is the goldfish, shown in the same figure, 

 and like it, coming from China. It is a familiar but most uninteresting 

 pet as it swims about, its body undergoing innumerable distortions from 

 the magnifying effect of the globe of water in which it is kept. Its sole 

 claim to prominence lies in the golden color of its scales, and this is a 

 result of domestication. In its wild state the scales are green, and fish 

 which escape from confinement soon return to the natural color. 



The suckers are more distantly- related to the carp, and may be dis- 



