324 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Most extraordinary of all the eel family is the Electric Eel, 

 which is found in many of the pools and rivers of South America. 

 As its name implies, this animal is capable of administering an 

 electric shock to any creature which comes into contact with it; 

 and it can even project its invisible discharge to some little dis- 

 tance, and kill a fish that is swimming several feet away. 



The manner in which the electricity is produced still remains 

 a mystery. Along the body run two organs, one lying upon the 

 other, from which the shock evidently proceeds; but how it is gener- 

 ated and stored up, and how the eel employs it, no one has as yet 

 been able to discover. Yet the discharge is sometimes very severe, 

 for a native boatman, when dragging his boat up some rapids, once 

 received a shock from one of these animals, and was obliged to go 

 ashore and rub his leg for some time before he could again make 

 use of the limb. 



These eels are said to be captured by the Indians in a very 

 curious manner. A number of horses are driven into the pool 

 which the eels are known to inhabit. Disturbed by the splashing, 

 they bring themselves into contact with the horses, and deliver a 

 severe shock of electricity. The terrified horses plunge wildly 

 about, and thus provoke the eels to continue to give shocks until 

 their store of electricity is quite exhausted, when they can be lifted 

 out of the water without danger. 



THE PIKE (Family ESOCID^) 



Though the Pike is caught in large numbers for food it is 

 perhaps better known through the many wonderful tales that are 

 told of its fierceness and voracity. Nothing seems to come amiss 

 to it. It preys very largely upon other fish, but if it cannot get 

 these it wiH swallow frogs, insects, or young water-birds, and it 

 will even attack and devour water-rats and other animals that may 

 come in its way. It has a habit of lying at the surface of the water 

 and basking in the sun, and stories are told of pike that have at 

 such times been attacked by a hawk, and either managed to drive 

 off the bird, or actually succeeded in drowning it. 



