164 FISHES AND FISHING. 



of the fishermen ;* these regain the shore, stum- 

 bling at every step, and stretch themselves on the 

 sand, exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs be- 

 numbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. In 

 less than five minutes, two horses were drowned ; the 

 eel being five feet long, and pressing itself against 

 the bellies of the horses, makes a discharge along the 

 whole extent of its electric organ. The horses are 

 probably not killed, but only stunned ; they are 

 drowned from the impossibility of rising amid the 

 prolonged struggle of the other horses, and the eels. 

 When the gymnoti have expended their electric 

 energy, they approach timidly the edge of the marsh, 

 where they are taken by means of small harpoons 

 fastened to long cords ; when the cords are very dry, 

 the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish into the 

 air. In this manner, several were captured and ex- 

 amined ; some measured 5ft. Sin. in length; and the 

 Indians assert, they are sometimes of much greater 

 length. The gymnotus is the largest of electrical fishes ; 

 and its electrical action is so powerful, that Humboldt 

 says, that he does^not remember to have ever received 

 from the discharge of a large Ley den jar, a more 

 dreadful shock than that which he experienced by im- 

 prudently placing his feet on a gymnotus just taken 

 out of the water." 

 ^ * This is called by the Indians, " Fishing with Horses." 



