FISHING WITH HOESES. 1 1^ 



Humboldt was impatient, from the time of his arrival 

 at Cumana, to procure electrical eels. He had been 

 promised them often, but his hopes had always been 

 disappointed. He at first wished to make his experi- 

 ments in the house he inhabited at Calabozo, but the 

 dread of the shocks caused by the gymnoti was so great, 

 and so exaggerated among the common people, that 

 during three days, he could not obtain one, though they 

 were easily enough caught, and he had promised the 

 Indians two piastres for every strong and vigorous fish. 

 Impatient, at last, of waiting, and having obtained very 

 uncertain results from an electric eel which had been 

 brought to him alive, but much enfeebled, Humboldt, 

 accompanied by Bonpland, repaired to the Cano de Bera, 

 to make his experiments in the open air, and at the edge 

 of the water. They set off on the 19th of March, at a 

 very early hour, for the village of Rastro ; thence they 

 were conducted by the Indians to a stream, which in the 

 time of drought, formed a basin of muddy water, sur- 

 rounded by fine trees. To catch the gymnoti with nets 

 was considered very difficult, on account of the extreme 

 agility of the fish, which buried themselves in the much 

 The Indians told them that they would fish with horses. 

 They found it difficult to form an idea of this manner of 

 fishing ; but they soon saw their guides return from the 

 savannah, which they had been scouring for wild horses 

 and mules. They brought about thirty with them, which 

 they forced to enter the pool. The noise caused by the 

 horses' hoofs, made the fish issue from the mud, and 

 excited them to the attack. These yellowish and livid 

 eels, resembling large aquatic serpents, swam on the sur- 

 face of the water, and crowded under the bellies of the 



