Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Spaniards Confound All Electric Fishes Under The Name Of
Tembladores.* (* Literally "Tremblers," Or "Producers Of Trembling.")
There Are Some
Of these in the Caribbean Sea, on the coast of Cumana.
The Guayquerie Indians, who are the most skilful and
Active fishermen
in those parts, brought us a fish, which, they said, benumbed their
hands. This fish ascends the little river Manzanares. It is a new
species of ray, the lateral spots of which are scarcely visible, and
which much resembles the torpedo. The torpedos, which are furnished
with an electric organ externally visible, on account of the
transparency of the skin, form a genus or subgenus different from the
rays properly so called.* (* Cuvier, Regne Animal volume 2. The
Mediterranean contains, according to M. Risso, four species of
electrical torpedos, all formerly confounded under the name of Raia
torpedo; these are Torpedo narke, T. unimaculata, T. galvanii, and T.
marmorata. The torpedo of the Cape of Good Hope, the subject of the
recent experiments of Mr. Todd, is, no doubt, a nondescript species.)
The torpedo of Cumana was very lively, very energetic in its muscular
movements, and yet the electric shocks it gave us were extremely
feeble. They became stronger on galvanizing the animal by the contact
of zinc and gold. Other tembladores, real gymnoti or electric eels,
inhabit the Rio Colorado, the Guarapiche, and several little streams
which traverse the Missions of the Chayma Indians. They abound also in
the large rivers of America, the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Meta;
but the force of the currents and the depth of the water, prevent them
from being caught by the Indians.
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