5o 
THE ELECTRIC EEL 
plunged into the blacksmith’s cistern. Small eyes, 
blue and bleared, are set in the top of a blunt 
ferocious head, from which the strong and muscular 
body tapers gradually to a point at the tail. Such, 
at least, is the appearance of the two electric eels at 
the Zoo, of whose power the writer, with curiosity 
stimulated by Baron Humboldt’s unique description 
of these creatures in the inland pools of tropical 
America, recently made trial. Neither the size of the 
fish, nor their physical condition in the small tank 
in which they exist at present, could reasonably be 
expected to produce such results as the great traveller 
witnessed in the stagnant pools of the llanos of 
Caraccas, when the Indians drove a herd of horses 
into the water to face the electric discharges of the 
fish. “ These yellowish livid eels,” he writes, u resem- 
bling large aquatic snakes, swim near the surface of 
the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses 
and mules. The struggle between animals of so 
different an organization affords a very interesting 
sight. The Indians, armed with harpoons and long 
slender reeds, closely surround the pool, and by their 
wild shouts and long reeds prevent the horses from 
coming to the bank. The eels seek to defend them- 
selves by repeated discharges of their electric batteries, 
and for a long time it seems as if theirs would be the 
victory. Several horses sink under the violence of 
the invisible blows which they receive in the most 
vital parts, and, benumbed by the force and frequency 
of the shocks, disappear beneath the surface. Others, 
