170 FISHING WITH HORSES. 



CHAP. XV. The struggle 1)et\vecn animals of so different an organiza- 

 — tion affords a very interesting sight. The Indians, 

 nl!he"^ furnisliod with harpoons and long slender reeds, closely 



surround tlie pool. Some of tliem climb the trees, 

 whose branches stretch horizontally over the water. By 

 their wild cries and their long reeds, they prevent the 

 horses from coming to the edge of the basm. The eels, 

 stunned by the noise, defend themselves by repeated 

 discharges of their electrical batteries, and for a long 

 time seem likely to obtain the victory. Several horses 

 T> str ctinn ^'"^ under the violence of the invisible blows which 

 01 tiie iiorsia they receive in the organs most essential to life, and, 

 benumbed by the force and frequency of the shocks, 

 disiippear beneath the surface. Others, panting, with 

 erect mane, and haggard eyes expressive of anguish, 

 raise themselves and endeavour to escape from the storm 

 which overtakes them, but are driven back by the 

 Indians. A few, however, succeed in eluding the active 

 vigilance of the fishers ; they gain the shore, stumble at 

 every step, and stretch themselves out on the sand, ex- 

 hausted with fatigue, and having their limbs benumbed 

 by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. 

 Kiectric "-^^ ^'-'^^ than five minutes two horses were killed, 



discharge of The eel, which is five feet long, presses itself against the 

 ' ^ *' belly of the horse, and makes a discharge along the whole 



extent of its electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, 

 the viscera, and the ca;liac plexus of the abdominal 

 nerves. It is natural that the effect which a horse ex- 

 periences should be more powerful tlian that produced 

 by the same fish on man, when he touches it only by 

 one of the extremities. The horses are probably not 

 killed but only stunned ; they are drowned from the 

 impossibility of rising amid the prolonged struggle 

 between the other horses and eels." 

 Capture of '^^^^ gymnoti at length dispersed, and approached the 

 the g)iimoil. edge of the pool, when five of them were taken by means 

 of small hari)oons fastened to long cords. A few more 

 were caught towards evening, and there was thus ob- 

 tained a sufficient number of specimens on which to 



