274 THE GYMNOTUS. 



drowned, or killed in a few minutes. The eels ap- 

 peared to attack in the way best calculated for destroy- 

 ing or impeding the energies of the horses, as they 

 laid their whole length close to the thorax and belly ; 

 and it is well known that the shock of the gymnotus is 

 in proportion to the surface which it touches. Thus 

 the blows were communicated directly to the most 

 delicate and essential parts of the horses ; and even 

 those that did not sink down, gave every sign of the 

 utmost agony and alarm ; and those that made their 

 way out of the water stumbled at every step, and lay 

 down upon the sand as if their nervous energy had 

 been completely destroyed. Their exertions had been 

 very severe to the eels also ; for, after it was over, the 

 shock, on drawing them out with a dry line, was 

 hardly perceptible. 



The gymnoti destroy all other kinds of fish in places 

 where they are abundant ; and they are said also to 

 prevent the multiplying of the alligators, by benumbing 

 the young ones till they are past recovery ; and when 

 the Indians find gymnoti and these together in their 

 nets, the alligators are stunned or lifeless, while there 

 is no appearance of a wound upon the others, so that 

 the alligators must have been struck before they could 

 bite. Fishes are stunned in an instant : and in the 

 experiments of Dr. Williamson, when he threw a cat- 

 fish of considerable size, into the vessel of water con- 

 taining the gymnotus, the eel first took a look at the 

 fish, and retired to a little distance ; but it instantly 

 returned and gave the cat-fish a shock, which made it 

 come to the surface motionless, and with its belly up- 

 permost. The death was not instant, however ; for if 



