[Illustration: THE ELECTRICAL EEL. (_Gymnotus Electricus._)] THIS very remarkable fish is about five or six feet in length, and twelve inches in circumference, in the thickest part of the body. The head is broad, flat, and large; the mouth wide and destitute of teeth; the rostrum obtuse and rounded; the eyes small and of a bluish colour; the back of a darkish brown, the sides grey, and the abdomen of a dingy white. Across the body there are several annular divisions, or rather ridges of the skin, which give the fish the power of contracting or dilating itself at pleasure. There is no dorsal fin, and the ventral fins are also wanting, as in all the Eels. It is able to swim backwards as well as forwards. Mr. Bryant mentions an instance of the shock from one of these fish being felt through a considerable thickness of wood. One morning, while he was standing by, as a servant was emptying a tub, in which an Electrical Eel was contained, he had lifted it entirely from the ground, and was pouring off the water to renew it, when he received a shock so violent as occasioned him to let the tub fall. He then called another person to his assistance, and they lifted up the tub together, each laying hold only on the outside. When they were pouring off the remainder of the water, they received a shock so smart that they were compelled to desist. Persons have been knocked down with a stroke. One of these fish having been taken from a net and laid upon the grass, an English sailor, notwithstanding all the persuasions 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 instance 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 themselves, 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.[B] [B] See a very animated account of the capture of this fish, in Humboldt’s “Views of Nature,” page 16 (_Bohn’s Edition_). This most singular fish is peculiar to South America, where it is found only in stagnant pools, at a great distance from the sea.