1QS NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Observations by Dr. Garden, 



salt water reaches, and that they are a fresh 

 water fish only. He says, that they are eaten, 

 and by some people esteemed a great delicacy. 

 They live on fish, worms, or any animal food, if 

 it is cut small so that they can swallow it. When 

 small live fish are thrown into the water, they 

 first give them a shock, which kills or so stupifies 

 them, that they can swallow them easily, and 

 without any trouble. If one of these small fish 

 after it is shocked, and to all appearance dead, 

 be taken out of the vessel where the electrical 

 fish is, and put into fresh water, it will soon re- 

 vive again. If a larger fish than they can swallow 

 be thrown into the water at a time when they are 

 hungry, they give him some smart shocks, till he 

 is apparently dead, and then endeavor to swal- 

 low or suck him in ; but after several attempts, 

 finding he is too large, they quit him. Upon the 

 most careful inspection of such fish, I could 

 never see any mark of teeth, or the least w r ound 

 or scratch upon them. When the electrical fish 

 are hungry, they are pretty keen after their food ; 

 but they are soon satisfied, not being able to 

 contain much at a time. An electrical fish of 

 three feet and upwards in length, cannot swallow 

 a fish above three, or at most three inches and a 

 half long. I am told, that the electrical fish is 

 sometimes found in the river Surinam, upwards 

 of twenty feet in length, and that the stroke, or 

 shock, proves instant death to the person who 

 Deceives it." 



