3 i2 THE ELECTRIC EEL. 



The reader will remember that in the torpedo the electric effect was produced by a 

 number of little columns ; in the Electric Eel, the corresponding organ consists of a great 

 number of divisions, technically called " septa," which are again subdivided by lesser 

 transverse membranes. One organ is always larger than the other ; and it was found 

 that in a fish measuring about two feet four inches in length, there were thirty-four septa 

 in the larger organ and fourteen in the smaller. On an average two hundred and forty 

 transverse membranes are packed in each inch, thereby giving a vast extent of elec- 

 tricity-producing surface. It was calculated by Lacepede, that the expanse of this organ 

 in an Electric Eel of four feet in length is equivalent to one hundred and twenty- 

 three square feet, while that of a large torpedo only equals fifty-eight feet. 



In the native country of these fishes they are captured by an ingenious but somewhat 

 cruel process. A herd of wild horses are driven to the spot and urged into the water. 

 The alarmed Gymnoti, finding their domains thus invaded, call forth all the terrors 

 of their invisible artillery to repel the intruders, and discharge their pent-up light- 



ELECTRIC EEL.-aymnotus electrlcus. 



nings with fearful rapidity and force. Gliding under the bellies of the frightened horses, 

 ley press themselves against their bodies, as if to economize all the electrical fluid, 

 and by shock after shock generally succeed in drowning several of the poor 

 quadrupeds. 



Horses, however, are but of slight value in that country, hardly, indeed, so much 

 d as pigeons in England, and as fast as they emerge from the water in frantic 



ror are driven back among their dread enemies. Presently the shocks become less 

 powerful, for the Gymnotus soon exhausts its store of electricity, and when the fishes 

 are thoroughly fatigued they are captured with impunity by the native hunters. A 

 most interesting account of this process is given by Humboldt, but is too long to be 

 inserted in these pages. 



Several of these wonderful fish have been brought to England in a living state ; and 

 nany of my readers may remember the fine Gymnotus that lived in the Polytechnic 

 Institution. Numbers of experimenters were accustomed daily to test its powers ; and 

 the fatal, or at all events the numbing, power of the stroke was evident when the creature 

 was supplied with the fish on which it fed. Though blind, it was accustomed to turn its 

 head towards the spot designated by the splashing of the attendant's finger, and as soon 



