364. NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE,

standing erect, and wild looks, expressing anguish, raise them-
selves and endeavour to flee from the storms by which they
are overtaken. ‘They are driven back by the Indians into the
middle of the water ; but a small number succeeds 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 shock of the gymnoti.

‘«Tn 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 organs. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines,
and the plexus cehacus of the abdominal nerves. It is nat-
ural, that the effect felt by the horses should be more powerful
than that produced upon men by the touch of the same fish at
any one of his extremities. The horses are. probably not
killed, but only stunned. They are drowned from the impos-
sibility of rising from amid the prolonged struggle 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 combat diminished, and the
wearied gymnoti dispersed. They require a long rest, and
abundant nourishment, to repair what they have lost of gal-
vanic force. ‘The mules and horses appear less frightened ;
their manes are no longer bristled, and their eyes express less
dread, The Indians assured us, that when the horses are
made to run two days successively into the same pool, none .
are killed the second day, The gymnoti approach timidly the
edge of the marsh, when they are taken by means of small
harpoons fastened to long cords. When the cords are very
dry, the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish into the air.
In a few minutes we observed five eels, the greater part of
which were but slightly wounded. Some were taken by the
same means towards the evening.