20 



returiilno-, in half an hour, I found that the mass had been swallowed. 

 The rope was cut within a foot of the mouth. The next day the rope 

 was pulled — it slipped over the bone, stripping off some of the meat, 

 which, tof^ethcr with the knot of the rope, was coated with a transparent, 

 tasteless,*scentless mucositj, without acidity on being tested by litmus. 

 I took a strip of the skin, fat and flesh of a hog, about two feet long, 

 which, being secured in like manner, was put in the mouth ; on returning 

 three hours after, I found that the mass was just where I had left it. I 

 then forced it down the throat, leaving the string out as before. Twenty 

 hours alter, the whole was drawn up unchanged, except a little blanch- 

 in«^ and a coating of mucous matter, as in the last case ; though this 

 mucosity slightly reddened litmus. 



" Mr. John Hunter conveyed pieces of worms and meat dov»-n the 

 throats of lizards, \Ahen they were going into their w inter quarters, and 

 keeping them afterwards in a cool place — on openiiig them, at different 

 periods, he always found the substances he had introduced entire, and 

 without any alteration ; sometimes they were in the stomach, at other 

 times they had passed into the intestines, and some of the lizards which 

 were allowed to live, voided them towards the spring entire," A torpedo 

 was kept by Dr. Davy many days ; when it died, a fish was found in 

 its stomach much in the same state in M'hich it was swallowed ; no part 

 of it had been dissolved : (Researches, v. 1, p. 37). 



A curious fact is mentioned by Mr. Audubon, and is directly in point, 

 though shocking to the true disciples of Isaac Walton, namely — that the 

 ornithologist was in the habit of killing Louisiana Alligators, for the 

 purpose of getting fresh fish out of their stomachs. He says, " in those 

 I have killed, and I have killed a great many, when opened to see the 

 contents of the stomach, or tale fresh ft sh out of them, I have regularly 

 found round masses of hard substance like pctriiied wood. These masses 

 appeared to be useful in the process of digestion, like those found in the 

 mav.'s of some species of birds. I have broken some of them with a 

 ham.mer, and found them brittle and as hard as stones, v.hich they out- 

 w^ardly resemble. And as neither our lakes, nor rivers, in the portion 

 of the country I have found them in, afford even a pebble as large as a 

 common egg, I have not been able to conceive how they are procured 

 by animals if positively they are stones, or by what poMer wood can 

 become stone in their stomachs." May not these masses be indurated 

 clay? Are not Alligators, to a certain extent, dirt-eaters ? Dr. Lindsay 

 informs me that he has had many opportunities of knowing that these 

 animals defecate large indurated masses, having all the physical proper- 

 ties of the mud banks in which they make burrows or dens. 



The Diet of Alligators appears to consist chiefly of fish. That they 

 should swallow tigers, oxen, mules and horses, is altogether ridiculous 

 and impossible. How a man of Mr. Audubon's accuracy, could directly 

 or indirectly give countenance to statements of this kind, appears quite 

 incomprehensible. According to him, " the drovers of Louisiana, when 

 ^riving horses, cattle and mules, go first into the water and drive oft* 

 the Alligators, which would otherwise attack the cattle, of uhich they 

 are very fond. They will swim quickly after a horse:'' (Buftbn's Nat. 

 Hist. Am. Edit.) 



