CLASS OF FISHES. 383 



tain quantity of water, and thus allow the animal to live a 

 long time in the air. They leave the rivers and stagnant 

 waters in which they live to traverse tracts of land, and some 

 even are enabled to climb trees, as the anabas. They are 

 natives of the Indies, China, and the Moluccas; and one spe- 

 cies, the gourami, much esteemed, has been acclimated in the 

 ponds of the Isle of France and Cayenne. 



Fig. 393. Respiratory Apparatus of the Anabas, 

 or Climbing Fish. 



489. A remarkable production of fishes is that of elec- 

 tricity, and the power it gives them of killing their prey by 

 an electric shock. The torpedo, the silurus or malapterurus, 

 and a species of gymnotus have this power ; and what is very 

 remarkable is, that the electric organ presents a different 

 conformation in each. 



The gymnotus, or electric eel of Surinam (Fig. 394), pos- 

 sesses the power in the highest degree; it resembles an eel, 

 but it has no fins towards the extremity of the tail, and it 

 has no distinctly visible scales. It attains sometimes six feet 

 in length, and the skin is covered with a gluey matter. It 

 is met with in vast numbers in the rivulets and stagnant 

 waters of the immense plains of South America. The elec- 

 tric shocks, which it discharges at will, are sufficiently strong 

 to kill men and horses ; and being transmissible through 

 water, the gymnotus does not require to touch its prey. At 

 first the electric discharges are feeble, but when roused they 

 become terrible; but by this effort it becomes exhausted, 

 and requires repose before it can renew the attack ; this is 

 the moment its captors avail themselves of to seize it. 



