THE GYMNOTUS, or ELECTRIC EEL.

The Gymnoti, or Electrical Eels, which resemble large water serpents, inhabit several streams of South America, and abound also in the Oroonoko, the Amazon, and the Meta, but the strength of the current, and the depth of the water in these large rivers, prevent their being caught by the Indians.

They see these fish less frequently than they feel electric shocks from them, when swimming or bathing in the river.

To catch the Gymnoti with nets is very difficult, on account of the extreme agility of the fish, which bury themselves in the mud like serpents.

Roots are sometimes thrown into the water to intoxicate or benumb these animals, but we would not employ these means, as they would have enfeebled the gymnoti: the Indians, therefore, told us, that they would "fish with horses."

We found it difficult to form an idea of this extraordinary manner of fishing; but we soon saw our guides return from the savannah, which they had been scouring for wild horses and mules.

They brought about thirty with them, which they forced to enter the pool.

The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs, makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat; they swim on the surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules.

A contest between animals of so different an organization, furnishes a very striking spectacle.

The Indians, provided with harpoons and long slender reeds, surround the pool closely; and some climb upon the trees, the branches of which extend horizontally over the surface of the water.

By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from running away, and reaching the bank of the pool.

The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the repeated discharge of their electric power, and during a long time they seem to prove victorious.

Several horses sink beneath the violence of the invisible strokes, which they receive from all sides, and stunned by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear under the water.

Others, panting, with mane erect, and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken.

They are driven back by the Indians into the middle of the water; but a small number succeed in eluding the active vigilance of the fishermen.

These regain the shore, stumbling at every step, and stretch themselves on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and their limbs benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti.

In less than five minutes two horses were drowned.

The eel being five feet long, and pressing itself against the belly of the horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of its electric organ.

The horses are probably only stunned, not killed, but they are drowned from the impossibility of rising, amid the prolonged struggles between the other horses and the eels.

We had little doubt, that the fishing would terminate by killing, successively, all the animals engaged; but, by degrees, the impetuosity of this unequal contest diminished, and the wearied gymnoti dispersed.

The mules and horses appeared less frightened; their manes no longer bristled, and their eyes expressed less dread.

The Gymnoti, which require a long rest and abundant nourishment to repair what they have lost of galvanic force, approach timidly the edge of the marsh, where they are taken by means of small harpoons, fastened to long cords.

The Gymnotus is the largest of electrical fishes; I measured some that were from five to five feet three inches long, and the Indians assert that they have seen still longer.

We found that a fish of three feet ten inches long weighed twelve pounds; the transverse diameter of the body was three inches five lines.

The Gymnoti of Cano de Bera are of a fine olive-green; the under part of the head is yellow, mingled with red.

Along the back are two rows of small yellow spots, from which exudes a slimy matter that spreads over the skin of the animal, and which, as Volta has proved, conducts electricity twenty or thirty times better than pure water.

It is, in general, somewhat remarkable, that no electrical fish yet discovered in the different parts of the world, is covered with scales.

The Gymnoti, which are objects of the most lively interest to the philosopher of Europe, are dreaded and detested by the natives.

Their flesh furnishes pretty good food, but the electric organ fills the greater part of the body, and this being slimy and disagreeable to the taste, is carefully separated from the rest.

The presence of the Gymnoti is also considered as the principal cause of the want of fish in the ponds and pools of the Llanos, where they kill many more fish than they devour.

The Indians told us, that when they take young alligators and gymnoti at the same time in very strong nets, the latter never display the slightest trace of a wound, because they disable the young alligators before they are attacked by them.

All the inhabitants of the waters dread the Gymnoti; lizards, tortoises, and frogs, seek the pools, where they are secure from their action.

It became necessary to change the direction of a road near Uritucu, because these electrical eels were so numerous in one river, that they every year killed a great number of mules of burden as they forded the river.

It would be temerity to expose ourselves to the first shocks of a very large and strongly irritated Gymnotus.

If by chance you receive a stroke before the fish is wounded, or wearied by a long pursuit, the pain and numbness are so violent, that it is impossible to describe the nature of the feeling they excite.

I do not remember having ever received from the discharge of an electrical machine, a more dreadful shock, than that which I experienced by imprudently placing both my feet on a Gymnotus just taken out of the water.

I was affected the rest of the day with a violent pain in the knees, and in almost every joint.

[Humboldt's Personal Narrative.]