100 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



It lives on small fish, and keeps near the bottom, preferring 

 a muddy bed to any other. There are about twenty spe- 

 cies of the torpedo found in the different seas of the world. 

 G. The most powerful of all the electric fishes, how- 

 ever, is the gymnotus, or electric eel, of the South Ameri- 

 can rivers. It has been well described as an electric bat- 

 tery with an eel attachment. The electric apparatus of 

 this strange creature occupy a largo portion of the length 

 of the body, and are four in number, two on each side. 

 They consist of an assemblage of membranous, horizontal 

 plates, intersected by delicate vertical plates, and the cells 

 thus formed are filled with a glutinous matter. Each inch 

 in length of the gymnotus contains, according to Hunter, 

 two hundred and forty cells. There is thus an enormous 

 surface of the electric machinery. The discharge is so 

 great that it is comjurted by Professor Faraday as equal 

 to that of fifteen Leydcn-jars of three thousand five hun- 

 dred scpiare-inch surfaces. 



7. This creature is rather sluggish in its movements, 

 and is only dangerous when disturbed by interference. It 

 differs from other eels in the completeness of its jaws and 

 in the possession of ribs. The skin is smooth and scaleless, 

 and the head is flat and oval, like that of a venomous ser- 

 jjent. It has more than a hundred sharp-pointed teeth, 

 but it never bites, except when eating its food. 



8. In the rivers of tropical South America it is fre- 

 quently found in such numbers as to render both bathing 

 and fishing extremely dangerous. It is found, however, 

 that after five or six discharges it becomes exhausted, and 

 can produce no more shocks until after a period of rest. 

 The Indians have learned to take advantage of this, and 

 they drive wild horses into the streams, who trample about 

 in the mud, receiving the electric discharges until the eels 

 are exhausted. In this condition they are speared without 

 inconvenience. 



