The Sea Lamprey belongs to the Mediterranean. When full grown it is about three feet long, and its light yellow body is marbled with brown. The Lampreys feed on worms, molluscs and small Fishes. The larger ones often seize Fishes of great size, and suck them like a Leech.
All the different kinds of Lampreys are considered very fine and delicate food, and horrible stories are told of how kings and emperors used to raise the best kinds of Lampreys in ponds and feed them by throwing into the ponds live slaves who had displeased them; as they considered the Lamprey had a finer flavor when fed on human flesh. But only one man, a senator of Rome, was really known to do such a dreadful thing, and we are told that when Augustus, the emperor, heard it he ordered all these ponds to be filled up; but not until after many poor slaves had met this awful death, simply because they did not happen to please their wicked master.
THE EELS.
The Eels belong to the family of bony Fishes, although the Lampreys which they resemble in general appearance, belong to the family of Fishes whose framework is made up of cartilage, or gristle. The Eels form a very large family if we would include the different kinds of bony Fishes that have the same snake-like form of the common Eel. We find these smaller families classed under the name of Apoda; this word means without feet when applied to animals, but when used to describe Fishes, means without the ventral fins which serve in the place of feet.
As the different kinds of Eels found under this family of Apoda are described by their Greek or Latin names, it will be well for us to understand the meaning of each of the four divisions. We would hardly recognize the plain Sand Eel, when we find him classed with “Osseous Fishes” under the name of “Ammodytes,” yet this is where the Naturalists place him, because this word in Latin means a sand-burrower, a kind of serpent, and is also derived from two Greek words meaning sand, and diver. The Electrical Eel is classed under fresh water Fishes under the name of Gymnotus, which comes from two Greek words meaning naked and back, showing that the back of the Electrical Eel is without fins. The Sea Eel is classed under the name of Muraenas, while Anguilla, which means snaky, serpent-like, is used to describe the plain Eels with smooth bodies and very few of the characteristics which distinguish the other Eels.
We will simply give all these different kinds of Eels their plain common name, but when we read of wonderful fresh water Fishes called Gymnotus Electricus, who have strange electrical powers, we will know the word is used to describe the Electrical Eel.
ELECTRICAL EELS.
Very strange stories are told of these Eels, and its power to give an Electric shock to any person or animal who touches it. Alexander von Humboldt is said to have given the first precise account of this very curious Eel. This celebrated Naturalist tells of a voyage up the Orinoco for the purpose of studying the Electrical Eel, great numbers of which are found in the neighborhood of this river. Some Indians conducted the party to the Cano de Bera, a muddy pond surrounded by rich vegetation, Indian figs and beautiful flowers.
The party of Naturalists were surprised when they learned that it would be necessary to use about thirty half-wild Horses to help them fish for the Electrical Eel, and that the severe shocks of electricity given by the Eels must be expended upon the Horses before it would be safe to touch the Eels.
While our hosts were explaining to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop horses and mules had arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of battue, pressing the horses on all sides, and forcing them into the marsh. The Indians, armed with long canes and harpoons, placed themselves round the basin, some of them mounting the trees, whose branches hung over the water, and by their cries, and still more by their canes, prevented the horses from landing again.