NATURAL HISTORY. Ill 



and raise their heads, while their eyes would 

 show their pain, and they would try to get 

 out. The Indians still drove them back, but 

 some few escaped, and reached the shore, 

 stumbling at every step, and would stretch 

 themselves on the bank, tired out, and be- 

 numbed in thek limbs by the shocks they 

 had received. M. Humboldt says that in less 

 than five minutes after the fight began, two 

 horses were drowned; and he thought that 

 the end of it would be, that every horse which 

 did not get out of the water would be killed : 

 but at last the eels became tired, and began 

 to disperse. This is just what the Indians 

 wish. They know that the eels have spent 

 so much of their electrical power that they 

 will need a long rest. It takes them a great 

 while to get back their strength ; so that if, 

 the next day after such a fight, you send in 

 more horses, they cannot kill one. When 

 the eels, tired out in this way, begin to sepa- 

 rate, they will swim to the edge of the pond, 

 and there the Indians take them with small 

 harpoons fastened to long cords. When the 

 cords are dry, the Indian feels no shock in 

 raising the eel out of the water. In this way 



