44 O DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



distance and in any direction, thus killing the 

 small fish and other animals on which it feeds. 

 If horses go into a pond where there are gym- 

 notiy they immediately fall down, and are unable 

 to rise. This power is exhausted if too much 

 exercised, but it is renewed by repose : the or- 

 gan in which it exists occupies the lower part 

 of the tail. One of these gymnoti was brought 

 alive to our menagerie, but it did not live long 

 enough to enable us to repeat all the experi- 

 ments which M. de Humboldt had made in 

 America. 



We are now arrived at the eighth and 

 last order of fishes, which is the most nume- 

 rous of all : it has been divided into eight fa- 

 milies. 



The tenio'idece have been thus named from the 

 resemblance of their long and flattened bodies to 

 a ribbon. We have five species of them, amongst 

 which are the lophotes of Lacepede (giorna) , a 

 rare and beautiful fish from the gulph of Genoa, 

 sent us by M. Martial Duvaucel ; the Cepedian 

 gymnetrus of the Mediterranean, the colour of 

 whose body is bright silver, and that of the fins, 

 red : and the garter fish (kipidopus), which was 

 caught at La Rochelle. A specimen of each of 

 these is attached to the ceiling. 



The family of the gobioidece comprehends the 



