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Updated: May 2, 2025
Its lake is about two leagues in length by three quarters of a league in breadth, and is said to be the only lake in Switzerland where that voracious fish, the silurus, is found. There are many vineyards in this vicinity, but the wine is very indifferent. It is, however said to produce the best Kirschrvasser, or Cherry brandy in Switzerland.
July 6. remained in camp the whole of this day, to rest the poor animals, which had been much fatigued by our last long stage. My expectations, however, of catching fish in the salt water, and of drying them, were sadly disappointed. The whole amount of their day's work was, a small Silurus, one mullet, and some small guard-fish.
The animals taken to camp during our three days' sport were two buffaloes, two wild boar, three hartebeest, one zebra, and one pallah; besides which, were shot eight guinea-fowls, three florican, two fish-eagles, one pelican, and one of the men caught a couple of large silurus fish.
The silurus, a large and ravenous fish, which abounds in the Danube, gives daily proof of it. A treatise on the great geological question, whether the continents now inhabited, have or have not been repeatedly submerged in the sea, has lately been read to the Académie des Sciences, by M. Constant Prevost.
The factory enjoyed every comfort: the poultry yard throve, far better than at Porto da Lenha; we saw fowls and pigeons, "Manilla" ducks and ducklings, and a fine peacock from Portugal, which seemed to enjoy the change. The fish is not so good as that caught further down, and the natives have a habit of narcotizing it: the Silurus electricus is exceptionally plentiful.
As I have already said, in these caves are sheets of water, some very large, others only a few feet in circumference, fed by subterranean currents. When the water is clear and sweet, it is peopled by a kind of bagre, a blind fish called by the natives tzau, also a species of Silurus.
It would seem to be the Maya niblu; nib, to thank; LU, the Bagre, a silurus fish. Niblu would then be the thanksgiving fish. Strange to say, the high priest at Uxmal and Chichen, elder brother of Chaacmol, first son of Can, the founder of those cities, is CAY, the fish, whose effigy is my last discovery in June, among the ruins of Uxmal.
There were also collected by thousands those "candirus," a kind of small silurus, of which many are microscopic, and which so frequently make a pincushion of the calves of the bather when he imprudently ventures into their haunts. The rich waters of the Amazon were also frequented by many other aquatic animals, which escorted the jangada through its waves for whole hours together.
Other fishes the silurus, malapterurus, and so on are likewise endowed with electric batteries for stunning and capturing their prey. The action of the organs is still a mystery, as, indeed, is the whole subject of animal electricity. Nobili and Matteucci discovered that feeble currents are generated by the excitation of the nerves and the contraction of the muscles in the human subject.
All were of the Silurus family, varying from a few inches to two feet. Fish-eagles sat upon the ledges overhanging the stream, and a flight of large cranes wheeled majestically in the upper air: according to the people, they are always to be seen at the Yellalas. The extent of a few hundred feet afforded a good bird's eye view of the scene.
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