110 CONVERSATIONS OW 



" Fishing with horses ! What does that 

 mean ?" 



" The savannas, or large open plains, in 

 South America have a great many wild horses 

 and mules running over them. M. Humboldt 

 says that the Indians caught about thirty of 

 these, and drove them into the pond where 

 the electrical eels were. The horses made a 

 great noise, and stirred up the mud with their 

 hoofs, and this brought up the eels from the 

 bottom in a great rage. They were very 

 large, and looked more like water-snakes than 

 like eels ; and rising to the top of the water, 

 they crowded under the bellies of the horses 

 and mules, and began to shock them. The 

 poor horses would try to get out of the pond ; 

 but the Indians, with spears and long reeds, 

 would stand around to hinder them from com- 

 ing out: some of them, too, would climb 

 upon the trees around the banks, and get out 

 upon the branches which were over the pond, 

 and by crying out aloud, and using their long 

 reeds, kept the horses in the pond. The eels 

 would continue to shock them with tremen- 

 dous blows, and a great many of the poor 

 creatures were either stunned or killed, and 

 would sink. Those not killed would pant 



