196 ELECTRIC EELS. 
vellers found an electrical apparatus nearly as com- 
plete as those of Europe, made by a person who 
had never seen any such instrument, had received 
no instructions, and was acquainted with the phe- 
nomena of electricity only by reading the Trea- 
tise of Sigaud de la Fond, and Franklin’s Memoirs. 
Next to this piece of mechanism, the objects that ex- 
cited the greatest interest were the electrical eels, or 
gymnoti, which abound in the basins of stagnant 
water and the confluents of the Orinoco. The dread 
of the shocks given by these animals is so great 
among the common people and Indians, that for 
some time no specimens could be procured, and one 
which was at length brought to them, afforded very 
unsatisfactory results. ; 
On the 19th March, at an early hour, they set 
off for the village of Rastro de Abaxo, whence 
they were conducted by the natives to a stream 
which, in the dry season, forms a pool of muddy 
water surrounded by trees. It being very difficult 
to catch the gymnoti with nets, on account of their 
extreme agility, it was resolved to procure some by in- 
toxicating or benumbing them with the roots of cer- 
tain plants, which when thrown into the water pro- 
duce that effect. At this juncture the Indians in- 
formed them that they would fish with horses, and 
soon brought from the savannah about thirty of these 
animals, which they drove into the pool. 
“<The extraordinary noise caused by the horses’ 
hoofs makes the fishes issue from the mud, and ex- 
cites them to combat. These yellowish and livid 
eels, resembling large aquatic snakes, swim at the 
surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of 
the horses and mules. The struggle between ani- 
