[38.] “The electric eel.” These animals are found in several of the rivers of South America. They are three or four feet in length, though a few have been found measuring six feet. The viscera lie close to the head, and all the rest of the body is taken up by the electrical apparatus, which consists of four batteries, two on each side. These batteries consist of horizontal membranous plates, intersected by delicate vertical plates; the spaces contain a glutinous matter. The batteries are supplied with two hundred and twenty-four pairs of nerves on each side. Humboldt gave much study to these eels, and wrote a graphic description of how the Indians captured them by driving horses into the water occupied by them. The powers of the fishes were exhausted in shocking the horses (some of which died from the effects), and the eels were caught. It is said, too, that the Indians sometimes caught wild horses by driving them into the water and capturing them while they were under the influence of the shock. Faraday calculated that the eel emitted a force as great as the highest charge of a Leyden battery of fifteen jars, having a coated surface of 3,500 square inches. The most powerful shocks are felt by touching the head of the eel with one hand, and the tail with the other.
[39.] “Blind fishes.” These are fishes found in caves, especially in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. They possess organs of touch so delicate that they are able to pursue and overtake fishes with eyes, that stray into their domain. It is very difficult to capture them, their sense of hearing being as acute as that of touch. They are nearly colorless and present a ghostly appearance in the water. They vary in length from two to five inches; they are viviparous.
[40.] “Sargossa Sea.” The name given to that part of the Atlantic Ocean lying between 25° and 36° north latitude, and west of the Azore islands, which is covered by a kind of seaweed distributed in great masses by the Gulf Stream. Humboldt speaks of it as “that great bank of weeds which so vividly occupied the imagination of Christopher Columbus, and which Oviedo calls the seaweed meadows.” On his first voyage Columbus passed through this sea, which caused great alarm to his companions, who thought there must be rocks or shoals near. The quantity of the weed is such as often to impede the progress of vessels.
TALK ABOUT BOOKS.
The histories of James Anthony Froude are best appreciated by and adapted to those who already have a good knowledge of history. They are like studies in higher mathematics, which always demand a careful preparation in the branches preceding them. All who read Thomas Becket[B] will readily assent to this. Without some knowledge of the “Constitutions of Clarenden,” one could hardly gather from this book what the beginning of the trouble was about, and would lose much of the enjoyment to be had in the fine analysis of the event. The first chapter contains a few incidents illustrative of the spirit of the times; then comes a very brief sketch of the famous archbishop, up to the time of the rupture of friendship between him and the king from that time until his murder in the cathedral of Canterbury, his life and characteristics are very fully drawn. The book lacks entirely that which no good book should ever be without—a full index.
Abridged dictionaries have been among the most unsatisfactory works which we have ever owned. They never cover the ground. A fresh attempt to make a complete, compact work has resulted in a book that no one need hesitate to recommend. It has been revised from Webster’s unabridged dictionary, and the editing has been subject to President Noah Porter. Several plans have been adopted for saving spaces, which neither cheapen the work nor injure the quality. The abridgment has been accomplished, we believe, after carefully comparing the abridged and unabridged works, without sacrificing either pronunciation, definitions or derivations. The aid of examples and synonyms is lost in the smaller work. The invaluable appendix of the larger work is very adequately represented by a pronouncing vocabulary of Biblical, classical, mythological, historical and geographical proper names. The cost of the book places it in the reach of almost every one. We have felt for a long time that there was no really desirable dictionary of low price which we could recommend willingly to our C. L. S. C. readers. This work will fully meet their needs, and we take pleasure in calling attention to it.[C]
A study of frontier life and government is to be found in “Mining Camps.”[D] As one reads the book the old saying “One half of the world does not know how the other half lives,” recurs again and again to the mind. That such great organizations should have been in existence, governed by local laws devised by themselves to suit the necessities of their condition, and carried up to a high state of development, while other parts of the country were almost in ignorance concerning these commonwealths, seems hard to understand. The book is not designed as a technical history of mining. Ancient and mediæval mining systems are examined, and the development of their institutions carefully traced. The greater part of the book is devoted to the study of camps in the remote West.