INTRODUCTION. 83 



succeed in eluding the active vigilance of the 

 fishermen. These regain the shore, stumbling at 

 every step, and stretch themselves on the sand, 

 exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs benumbed 

 by the electric strokes of the Gymnoti. 



" In less than five minutes two horses were 

 drowned. The eel being five feet long, and pres- 

 sing itself against the belly of the horses, makes 

 a discharge along the whole extent of its electric 

 organ. It attacks at once the heart, the intes- 

 tines, and the plexus of abdominal nerves. We had 

 little doubt the fishing would terminate by killing 

 successively all the animals engaged; but, by 

 degrees, the impetuosity of this unequal contest 

 diminished, and the wearied Gymnoti dispersed. 

 They require a long rest, and abundant nourish- 

 ment, to repair what they have lost of galvanic 

 force 1 and, in a few minutes, we had five large 

 eels, the greater part of which were only slightly 

 wounded."* 



The reproduction and migration of fish is an- 

 other part of their history full of interest. They 

 are, with a few exceptions, oviparous, and are 

 fruitful to a most surprising degree so much so, 

 that if the whole ova were to be matured, bounds 

 could not be assigned to them, and the expanse 

 of the waters would be crammed; but among 



* Humboldt's Pers, Narr iv. 349. 



