The Electrical Eel 489 
of these fish having been taken from a net and laid upon 
the grass, an English sailor, notwithstanding all the per- 
suasions that were used to prevent him, would insist on 
taking it up ; but the moment he grasped it he dropped 
down in a fit ; his eyes were fixed, his face became livid, 
and it was not without difficulty that his senses were 
restored. He said that the instant he touched it " the 
cold ran swiftly up his arm into his body, and pierced 
him to the heart." 
Humboldt tells us that when the Indians wish to catch 
these Eels they drive some wild horses through the pools 
which the fish inhabit; and that when the Eels have 
exhausted their electrical power upon the horses, the 
Indians take them without difficulty. He relates an in- 
stance in which he says that the horses, stunned with 
the shocks they received, sank under water, but most of 
them rose again, and gained the shore, where they lay 
stretched out on the ground, apparently quite exhausted 
and without the power of moving, so much were they 
stupefied and benumbed. In about a quarter of an hour, 
however, the Eels appeared to have exhausted them- 
selves, and, instead of attacking fresh horses that were 
driven into the pond, fled before them. The Indians 
then entered the water and caught as many fish as they 
liked.* 
This most singular fish is peculiar to South America, 
where it is found only in stagnant pools, at a great dis- 
tance from the sea. 
* See a very animated account of the capture of this fish, in Hum- 
boldt's " Views of Nature," page 16 (Bohn's Edition). 
