FISHING WITH HORSES. 197 - 
mals of so different an organization affords a very 
interesting sight. The Indians, furnished with har- 
poons and long slender reeds, closely surround the 
pool. Some of them 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 basin. The eels, 
stunned by the noise, defend themselves by re- 
peated discharges of their electrical batteries, and 
for a long time seem likely to obtain the vic- 
tory. Several horses sink under the violence of the 
invisible blows which they receive in the organs 
most essential to life, and, benumbed by the force 
and frequency of the shocks, disappear beneath the 
surface. Others, panting, with erect mane, and 
haggard eyes expressive of anguish, raise themselves 
and endeavour to escape from.the storm which over- 
takes them, but are driven back by the Indians. 
A few, however, succeed in eluding the active vigi- 
lance of the fishers ; they gain the shore, stumble at 
every step, and stretch themselves out on the sand, 
exhausted with fatigue, and having their limbs be- 
numbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti. 
“< In less than five minutes. two horses were killed. 
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 celiac plexus of 
the abdominal nerves. It is natural that the effect 
which a horse experiences should be more powerful 
than 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 
