^'74 



THE ELECTRIC EEL. 



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 lightnings with fearful 

 rapidity and force. Gliding under the bellies of the frightened horses, they 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 of but slight value in that country, hardly, indeed, so much valued 

 as pigeons in North America, and as fast as they emerge from the water in frantic terror, 

 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. 



ELECTRIC EEL.— Gymnotus electricus. 



Several of these wonderful fish have been brought to foreign countries in a living state. 1 

 well remember a fine Gymnotus that lived in captivity. 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 as a fish was allowed to fall into the water the Gymnotus would 

 curve itself slightly, seemed to stiffen its muscles, and the victim turned over on its back, 

 struck as if dead by the violence of the shock. 



When full-grown, the Electric Eel will attain a length of live or six feet, and is then a 

 truly formidable creature. The body is rounded, and the scales small and barely visible. 

 According to Marcgrave, the native name for this fish is Carapo. 



We have already seen some examples of fishes where the body is extremely transparent, and 

 now come to an entire family where this peculiarity is the chief and most obvious characteristic. 



