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Alexander von Humboldt: „Electrical eels“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1819-Baron_Humboldts_Personal_Heft1-24-neu> [abgerufen am 20.04.2024].
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| Titel | Electrical eels | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1837 | ||||||
| Ort | London | ||||||
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Nachweis in: Tales of Travellers; or, a View of the World 1:32 (13. Mai 1837), S. 251–252.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||||
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|251||Spaltenumbruch|
The dread of the gymnoti, or electri-cal eels of South America, is so greatamong the Indians, that the offer of re-ward is unavailing to induce them toendeavour to procure some of them;though they pretend, by only chewing alittle tobacco, they may venture to touchthem with impunity. “This fable,”says M. de Humboldt, in his personalnarrative of travels, “of the influence oftobacco on animal electricity, is as gene-ral on the continent of South America,as the belief among mariners of theeffect of garlic and tallow on the mag-netic needle,” and as groundless too.The gymnoti are difficult to be taken bynets, on account of their extreme agility,and their burying themselves in the mudlike serpents; they are more easilycaught by the roots of the piscidea erith-ryna, jacquinia armillaris, and some spe-cies of phyllanthus, which when throwninto the pool, intoxicate or benumbthem. This, however, would have en-feebled the gymnoti, and Humboldtwished to procure them in full vigour.The Indians therefore told him that theywould set the fish to sleep, or intoxicatethem with horses. He found it difficultto conceive what this meant; but he sawthe guides, who had gone to the savan-nah, return presently to the stream ofmuddy water to which he had been con-ducted, with about thirty horses andmules which they had collected. The
|Spaltenumbruch|novel and singular scene which ensued isthus described by that traveller:—
“The extraordinary noise caused bythe horses’ hoofs makes the fish issuefrom the mud, and excites them to com-bat. These yellowish and livid eels, re-sembling large aquatic serpents, swimon the surface of the water, and crowdunder the bellies of the horses and mules.A contest between animals of so differentan organization, furnishes a strikingspectacle. The Indians, provided withharpoons and long slender reeds, surroundthe pool closely; and some climb uponthe trees, the branches of which extendhorizontally over the surface of the water.By their wild cries and the length oftheir reeds, they prevent the horses fromrunning away and reaching the bank ofthe pool. The eels, stunned by the noise,defend themselves by the repeated dis-charge of their electric batteries. Dur-ing a long time they seem to prove vic-torious. Several horses sink beneaththe violence of the invisible strokes,which they receive from all sides inorgans the most essential to life; andstunned by the force and frequency ofthe shocks, disappear under the water.Others, panting, with mane erect andhaggard eyes, expressing anguish, raisethemselves, and endeavour to flee fromthe storm by which they are overtaken.They are driven back by the Indiansinto the middle of the water; but asmall number succeed in eluding theactive vigilance of the fishermen. Theseregain the shore, stumbling at everystep, and stretch themselves on the sand,exhausted with fatigue, and their limbsbenumbed by the electric shocks of thegymnoti.
“In less than five minutes, two horseswere drowned. The eel, being five feetlong, and pressing itself against the bellyof the horses, makes a discharge alongthe whole extent of its electric organ.It attacks at once the heart, the intes-tines, and the plexus cæliacus of theabdominal nerves. It is natural thatthe effect felt by the horses should bemore powerful than that produced uponman by the touch of the same fish atonly one of his extremities. The horsesare probably not killed, but only stunned.They are drowned from the impossibilityof rising amid the prolonged strugglebetween the other horses and the eels.
|252|
|Spaltenumbruch|
“We had little doubt that the fishingwould terminate by killing successivelyall the animals engaged; but by degreesthe impetuosity of this unequal combatdiminished, and the wearied gymnotidispersed. They require a long rest,and abundant nourishment, to repairwhat they have lost of galvanic force.The mules and horses appear less fright-ened; their manes are no longer bristled,and their eyes express less dread. Thegymnoti approach timidly the edge ofthe marsh, where they are taken by meansof small harpoons fastened to long cords.When the cords are very dry, the In-dians feel no shock in raising the fishinto the air. In a few minutes we hadfive large eels, the greater part of whichwere but slightly wounded. Some weretaken by the same means towards theevening.”
M. de Humboldt says it would betemerity to expose oneself to the firstshocks of a large and strongly irritatedgymnotus; that a stroke from such aface is productive of much pain andnumbness; and that he received sodreadful a shock by imprudently placinghis feet on one just taken out of thewater, that he was affected the rest of theday with a violent pain in the knees, andin almost every joint. He adds that theelectric action of the fish depends en-tirely on its will, and that it has thepower of directing the action of itsorgans to any particular part of the ex-ternal object that may affect it, ortowards the point where it finds itselfthe most strongly irritated.
“The presence of the gymnoti,” saysHumboldt, “is considered as the prin-cipal cause of the want of fish in theponds and pools of the Llanos. Thegymnoti kill many more than they de-vour; and the Indians told us, thatwhen they take young alligators andgymnoti at the same time in very strongnets, the latter never display the slight-est trace of a wound, because theydisable the young alligators before theyare attacked by them. All the inha-bitants of the waters dread the society ofthe gymnoti. Lizards, tortoises, andfrogs, seek the pools where they aresecure from their action. It became ne-cessary to change the direction of a roadnear Uritucu, because these electricaleels were so numerous in one river, that
|Spaltenumbruch|they every year killed a great number ofmules of burden as they forded thewater.”
electrical eels.