345 



arrival at Cumana, to procure electrical eels. 

 We had been promised them often, but our 

 hopes had always been disappointed. Money 

 loses it's value as you withdraw from the coast ; 

 and how is the imperturbable phlegm of the 

 vulgar to be vanquished, when they are not ex- 

 cited by the desire of gain ? 



The Spaniards confound all electrical fishes 

 under the name of tembladores (producers of 

 trembling, literally tremblers). There are some 

 in the Caribbean sea, on the coast of Cumana. 

 The Guayqueria Indians, who are the most 

 skilful and industrious fishermen in those parts, 

 brought us a fish, which, they said, had be- 

 numbed their hands. This fish ascends the 

 little river Manzanares. It is a new species of 

 the ray, the lateral spots of which are scarcely 

 visible, and which much resembles the torpedo 

 of Galvani. The torpedoes, furnished with an 

 electric organ that is externally visible, on ac- 

 count of the transparency of the skin, form a 

 genus or subgenus, different from the rays pro- 

 perly so called # . The torpedo of Cumana was 



* Cuvier, Regne Animal, vol. ii, p. 136. The Mediterra- 

 nean contains, according to Mr. Risso, four species of electri- 

 cal torpedoes, all formerly confounded under the name of 

 raia torpedo ; these are torpedo narke, t. unimaculata, 

 t. galvanii, and t. marmorata. The torpedo of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, the subject of the recent experiments of Mr. 

 Todd, is no doubt a nondescript species. 



