160 FISHES AND FISHING. 



''Annual Eegister/* 1767. — From the " Memoirs of 

 the Academy of Sciences," at Paris, M. Muschenbrock, 

 a celebrated naturalist, says, in a letter to the Abbe 

 I^ollet, that a fish, or kind of eel, is found in a river 

 of Surinam, which has the singular property of giving 

 a shock like that of a Leyden phial. Persons in a 

 boat, even eight or ten feet off the fish, if they dip 

 their hands in the water, receive a shock ; if it be 

 touched with a stick, the person so touching it feels 

 the sensation, but not so strongly as when touched 

 with an iron rod, then the shock is very severe ; 

 but when touched with a stick of sealing wax, no 

 shock is felt. Fishes swimming past this eel, are 

 killed by the exertion of the power inherent in it. 

 It is called by naturalists, Gymnotus ; by the Dutch, 

 Beef-aal ; by the French, Anguille be bceuf. It is 

 about four feet in length, and nearly the size of a 

 man's arm. 



M. Richer, in the account of his voyage to Cayenne, 

 speaks of a fish in size and effects like the before- 

 mentioned, and says that by striking other fishes 

 with its tail they are set asleep. 



In the '* Annual Eegister," 1769, is a quotation from 

 Mr. Bancroft's *' Natural History of Guiana," in which 

 is an account of a fish he calls the *' Torporific Eel ;" 

 he describes it as being about three feet long, and 

 twelve inches in circumference, near the middle; 



