EliiCTBICAL FISHES. 
118 
you withdraw from the coast; and how is the imperturbable 
Apathy of the ignorant people to be vanquished, when they 
a re not excited by the desire of gain ? 
The Spaniards confound all electric fishes under the name 
oi tembladores.* There are some of these in the Caribbean 
kea, on the coast of Cumana. The Guayquerie Indians, 
w ' 10 are the most skilful and active fishermen in those 
parts, brought us a fish, which, they said, benumbed their 
aands. This fish ascends the little river Manzanares. It 
18 a new species of ray, the lateral spots of which are 
scarcely visible, and which much resembles the torpedo, 
he torpedos, which are furnished with an electric organ ex- 
ni ally visible, on account of the transparency of the skin, 
°rm a genus or subgenus different from the rays properly 
80 called. t The torpedo of Cumana was very lively, very 
energetic in its muscular movements, and yet the electric 
Shocks it gave us were extremely feeble.’ They became 
stronger on galvanizing the animal by the contact of zinc 
i 1 Other tembladores , real gymnoti or electric eels, 
V aabit the Bio Colorado, the Guarapiche, and several little 
reams which traverse the Missions of the Chayma Indians, 
hey abound also in the large rivers of America, the Ori- 
c ° e °» the Amazon, and the Meta; but the force of the 
hrrents and the depth of the water, prevent them from 
e mg caught by the Indians. They see these fish less fre- 
jiuently ^ an t ]jgy. f ee q s bocks from them when swimming or 
a hing j n the river. In the Llanos, particularly in the 
tl/^ms of Calabozo, between the farms of Morichal and 
e Upper and Lower Missions, the basins of stagnant 
a ‘ and the confluents of the Orinoco (the Bio Guarico 
e j e . e ca nos Bastro, Berito, and Paloma) are filled with 
in thi 6e * s ' ® rst ^shed to make our experiments 
s ho V 10use we inhabited at Calabozo ; but the dread of the 
c s caused by the gymnoti is so great, and so exag- 
f Uiteyally “ tremblers,” or “producers of trembling.” 
co rd',n» T t er \^^” n . e ^ n ' ma b v°l. ii. The Mediterranean contains, ac- 
c °nfou’d Kiss0 > Uur species of electrical torpedos, all formerly 
T. u T < ( under the name of Raia torpedo ; these are Torpedo narke, 
Cape o? f? u ata ' T. galvanii, and T. marmorata. The torpedo of the 
is, no j “°°d Hope, the subject of the recent experiments of Mr. Todd, 
oubt, a nondescript species. 
v °Xi. ii. 
I 
