The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-11 00:00:00

-r•Paieß Id.

considerably swelled; and that vess:ls to convey
the wate► were wanting.
" There remained a ditty to be fulfilled toward
the dead, enjoined at once by piety, and the dre.d
of infection. It being impossible to inter Ito wary
thousand corpoe P. half-buried under the ruins. coon-
micsaries were appointed to burn the bashes and
for this purpose funeral piles were erected beiorto
the heaps of rums. This ce.emony lasted several
days. Amid so massy public calamitier. the people
devoted themselves to those religious duties; *kids
they thought were the moat fitted to appeal', the
wrath of Heaven. Some. assembling its protesiinsie,
sang funeral hymns; others, in a state of distraction.
confessed themselves aloud in the streets. /tin,.
town was now repeated what had been reihnketl iu

the province of (,Quito, after the tremendous ran; .
quake of 1797 ; a number of ns IrriaKet, were col.-
tracted between perso•nr. who had aeglected for tuum,y
yews to sanction their union by the sace►dotal hone.
diction ; chtldrems found parents, by *brim they
never till then been acknowledged; rem;ii attains wen•
promised by !permits, who had never heed accused
of fraud ; sod families, who had long been t'.r.
lilies, were drawn together by the tie of commo.
calemity."—pp. 12-17.
Humboldt also gives time foil/Diming enrinus
count of the manner in which time [whims calm's

the Ryaraoli, or electrical eel.. by (hiving hor•vi
into the pools, and driving thew out of the mud I.•

which they lodge themselves i—
" The extraordinary noise caused by the horse,'
hoofs makes the fish issue from the mod, and ex.
cites them In combat. These yellowish amid Relit
eels, resembling large aquatic serpreits. swim oa the
surface of the water, and crowd tinder the bellies
of the horses and mules. A contest between .01-
mals of so different an organization furnishes a rely
striking spectacle. The lodinate, provided svitti
harpoons and long slender reeds, surround the
pool closely ; and some climb upon the trees, flee
branches of which extend horizontally over the stir-
face of the water. By their wild cries, sod the
length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from
running away and rrachitig the bank of the pool.
The eels, stunned by the noise, decrial them-
selves by the repeated discharge of their electric
batteries. During a long time they seem to prove
victorious. Several horses sink beneath the violence
of the invisible strokes, which they receive fro
all sides in organs the most essential to life: and
stunned by the force and frequency of the shucks.
disappear under the water. Othe.s, panting, wit's
mane erect and haggard eyes. expressing anguish.
raise themselves, and endeaviiiir t. flee from the
shwas by which they are overtaken. They are
driven back by the turbans into the middle of the
water ; but a small number succeed in eluding the
,Mitre vigilance of the fishermen. These regain
the shore, stumbling at every step, and stretch
themselves on the sand, exhausted wish fatigue,
and their limbs benumbed by the electric slit', is
of the gymuoti.
" In less than five minutes two horses were
drowned. The eel, bring five feet lung, and press-
ing itself against the ,wily of the hussies, make..
a discharge along the whole extent of its electric
organ. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines.
and the plexus eceliacus of the abdominal nerve-.
It is natural that the effect felt by the horses should
be more powerful thus that produced upon man by
the touch of the same fish at only tow of his ex•
tremiiirs. The horses are probably toot killed but
only stunned. They are drowned from the impos-
sibility of rising amid the prolonged struggle bra
tweets the other horses and the eels.
" We had little doubt that the fishing would
terminate by killing successively all the
engaged ; but by degrees the impetuosity of t!,•
unequal combat dimiiiisl etl, and the wearied
gymnoti dispersed. They require a long rest, and
abundant nourishment, to repair what they have
lost of galvanic force. The moles arid horses ap-
pear less frightened ; their manes are no longer
bristled, said their eyes express less dread. The
gymouti approach timidly the edge of the mars!).
where they are taken by means of small harpoons
fastened to long cords. When the curds are very
dry the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish ions
the air. In a few minutes we had five large eels,
the greater part of which were but slightly writitel.d.
Some were taken by the saute Wesus toward the
evening."—pp. 348—5.50.
M. de Humboldt says it would be temerity to
expose oneself to the first shocks of a large and
strongly irritated gy 1111 l otos ; that a stroke Irvin
such a fish is productive of more pain and numburse
than from the discharge of a large Leyden jar; oral
that he received so dreadful a shock by insprudsvii!y
placing his feet on one just taken out of the water,
that he was affected the rest of the day with a via-
lent pain in the knees, and in almost every jivitir.
He adds, that the electric action of the fish depends
entirely on its will, and that it has the power ci
directing the action of its organ. to any particular
part of the external object that miry iitf.ct 1,, or
towards the point where it finds itself the most
strongly irritated.
We have now a dissertation of about steers's'
pages on the nature and +ratify of the electrical
action of fishes, of *lnch we can only find room
fur the following (anions paragraph
The presence of the gy ati is considered as
the principal cause of the want of fists an tiw ponds
and pools of the Lim's. The gy tt kill many
more than they devour ; cud the Indi tns told us,
that when they hike young alligators and gyintiott
at the same time in very strong nets. the !after
never display the slightest trace of a +tumid, bee
cause they disisble the young alligators before they
are attacked by norm. All the iiiiishltdots °I. the
waters dread the society of the gynniott. Lizards,
tortoises. and frogs seek the pools,
share they are
secure from their ection. It became vier:est:iv to
change the direction of a road near Urituco. be-
cause these electrical eels were so winierusi• irs outs
river, that they every year killed a great number of
males of burden as they forded the water."—p. ;374.
In the following anecdote he describes the ,u. us