Jaguars and Electric Eels

Another of the Penguin Great Journey books, this one excerpts from von Humbolt's [b:Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent 641481 Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent (Penguin Classics) Alexander von Humboldt https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361559166s/641481.jpg 627671], which itself appears to be a very shortened version of his writings about the top of South America.It was one of the books in the series that I was looking forward to the most, and for that reason perhaps, I was a little underwhelmed. It was interesting - particularly the jaguars and the electric eels, but it was not really a narrative that stopped me putting the book down. He had some great descriptions of flora and fauna - it was obvious he was passionate about these topics, and there was some interesting stuff about the geography, the culture and the legends of the native Indians. Despite this for me the narrative just didn't enthral me.Bits from the capture of the electric eels - tembladores - “which make you tremble”.“The Indians decided to fish with their horses, embarbascar con caballos. It was hard to imagine this way of fishing; but soon we saw our guides returning from the savannah with a troop of wild horses and mules. There were about thirty of them, and they forced them into the water.The extraordinary noise made by the stamping of the horses made the fish jump out of the mud and attack. These livid, yellow eels, like great water snakes, swim on the water's surface and squeeze under the bellies of the horses and mules. A fight between such different animals is a picturesque scene....Several horses collapsed from the shocks received on their most vital organs, and drowned under the water. Others, panting, their mane erect, their eyes anguished, stood up and tried to escape the storm surprising them in the water....The eel is about 5 feet long, and presses all its length along the belly of the horse, giving it electric shocks... It is obvious that shock felt by the horse is worse than that felt by a man touched on one small part....gradually the violence of the unequal combat died down, and the tired eels disbursed. They need a long rest and plenty of food to recuperate the lost galvanic energy... the eels timidly approached the shore, where we fished them with harpoons... in a few minutes we had five huge eels, only slightly wounded...”and on it went. Great stuff.