File:Five hundred fascinating animal stories, with numerous colored plates, illustrating the nature, habits, manners and customs of animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, etc., etc., ect. (1907) (14569242247).jpg

Identifier: fivehundredfasci00mile (find matches)
Title: Five hundred fascinating animal stories, with numerous colored plates, illustrating the nature, habits, manners and customs of animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, etc., etc., ect.
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Miles, Alfred H. (Alfred Henry), 1848-1929
Subjects: Animal behavior Zoology
Publisher: New York, The Christian herald
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

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hock. It belongs to the Amazon and other SouthAmerican rivers, and their tributaries, and is well known toAmerican Indians. Humboldt describes the shock producedby this creature, as exceeding in strength that of a large Leydenjar. Having imprudently placed his foot on one just takenfrom the water he received such a shock that he says, I wasaffected the rest of the day with violent pains in the knees, andin almost every joint.Catching the The following vivid description of a Gymnotus Gymnotus. hunt is given by Humboldt : We at first wishedto make our experiments in the house we inhabited at Cala-bozo ; but the dread of the electrical shocks of the gymnoti isso exaggerated among the vulgar, that during three days wecould not obtain one, though they are easily caught, andthough we had promised the Indians two piastres for everystrong and vigorous fish. Impatient of waiting, and having obtained very uncertainresults from an electrical eel that had been brought to us MILES NATURAL HISTORY.
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d Bass. CATCHING THE GYMNOTUS. 3O3 alive, but much enfeebled, we repaired to the Cano de Bera,to make our experiments in the open air, on the borders of thewater itself. We set off on the 19th of March for the villageof Rastro de Abaxo, thence we were conducted to a stream,which, in the time of drought, forms a basin of muddy water,surrounded by fine trees. To catch the gymnoti with nets isvery difficult, on account of the extreme agility of the fish,which bury themselves in the mud like serpents. We wouldnot employ the barbasco, that is to say, the roots of Piscideaerythrina and Jacquinia armillaris, which, when thrown intothe pool, intoxicate or benumb these animals. These meanswould have enfeebled the gymnoti ; the Indians therefore toldus, that they would fish with horses. We found it difficultto form an idea of this extraordinary manner of fishing ; butwe soon saw our guides return from the Savannah, which theyhad been scouring for wild horses and mules. They broughtabout thirty

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