named Leviathan in the Scriptures. 309 



acts referred to; and thus it is understood by all those com- 

 mentators who maintain that the leviathan is the common cro* 

 codile : but, in order to maintain their argument, they all are 

 obliged to assert that Herodotus was misinformed, when he 

 spoke of catching crocodiles by the jaw with a baited hook, 

 and drawing them out of the river ; those commentators con- 

 tending that it is, in point of fact, impossible to do so. In 

 that they make, however, a gratuitous and erroneous assump- 

 tion ; for that it is possible, and usual so to do, is proved by 

 its being the mode still practised by the South American In- 

 dians : and there is a gentleman now living in this county 

 (Yorkshire), Mr. Waterton of Walton Hall, who has in his 

 house, near Wakefield, the stuffed skin of a cayman (a large 

 species of South American crocodile), which he assisted at 

 the taking of in this very way . The account of the transac- 

 tion in Waterton's Wanderings is familiar to every naturalist. 

 [J. Bateman, Esq., of Knypersley Hall, has given, in the 

 Gardener's Magazine, xi. 1 — 7.? a brief account of the bota- 

 nical researches in Guiana of Mr. Colley, whom he had sent 

 thither to collect native plants for him : from that account we 

 quote (p. 5.), that " Mr. Colley met with an Indian, who had 

 accompanied Mr. Waterton, and who was one of the heroes 

 who figured in the never to be forgotten conflict with the 

 cayman."] 



This mode of capturing the than, or crocodile, was also 

 alluded to in the before-quoted passage from Ezekiel: " I will 

 put a hook in thy jaws," &c. (Ezekiel, ch. xxix. ver. 4.) 

 That mode of taking crocodiles was, therefore, not only pos- 

 sible, but it is evident, as I have before shown from Hero- 

 dotus, that it was practised in ancient times. The piercing 

 his jaw through with a thorn has, evidently, allusion to the 

 mode of capturing crocodiles mentioned by M. Bosc as prac- 

 tised in Egypt and Senegal, by means of a piece of iron, or 

 strong wood, pointed at both ends, thrust in an upright posi- 

 tion into his mouth when he opens it. 



This verse, therefore, " Canst thou ? " &c, may be para- 

 phrased thus: — "You capture the crocodile with a baited 

 hook, fastened to a cord, or by a spike placed upright in his 

 mouth, when he opens it to bite; but canst thou so take 

 leviathan ? no ! it is impossible." Now, if the leviathan were 

 that mighty, large, and powerful animal the megalosaurus, it 

 is evident that he could not be drawn out of the deep, nor, 

 indeed, held, by any hook or cord which could have been 

 fabricated ; and that that which would be sufficient to capture 

 a than, or crocodile, would be of no avail to hold a leviathan 

 or megalosaurus. Now, since the megalosaurus, or leviathan, 



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