The electric action of the eel depends entirely upon its own will and a shock can be given whether it is touched by one or both hands to complete the circuit. When wounded, their power is almost destroyed and they are able to give only feeble shocks. Humboldt describes putting both feet upon a newly-captured specimen, which rendered him entirely powerless for a considerable time. The shock was so great that he suffered all day from pains in his knee and back.

Though caught easily with a harpoon, the natives have such an intense dread of them that it is difficult for naturalists to secure specimens. The peons have an idea that one can escape the shock, while going through waters infested by the eels, if he carries a chew of tobacco in his mouth.

This supposed influence of tobacco upon animal electricity is not entirely without some scientific basis, but in the form of a quid in the mouth it is, of course, purely imagination.

It is not an uncommon thing for a large colony of these eels, to attack and drown a horse in mid-stream, which they will leisurely devour afterwards. It is recorded that, during the patriot wars in Venezuela, a large army marching through the Llanos was seriously disabled in crossing a bayou infested with these mischievous creatures. At Damarara, British Guiana, in the early days, these eels were employed by the medical fraternity, to cure paralytic troubles, just as the torpedo fish was employed by the ancient Greeks.

ANDREW JAMES MILLER.