22 



All these enormous fish are swaUoiced under water — the power of doing 

 which, Cuvier expressly denies them. He says, " that they first drown 

 their prey ; then they carry it to some submerged crevice, to putrify be- 

 fore they eat it." Hence, the Cuvierians hold, that alligators live on 

 rotten flesh. The truth is, these animals live mostly on fresh fish — a 

 fact asserted by Sir G. Wilkinson, with respect to the Nilotic croco- 

 dile._(F. 2d ^\ 124, London, 1843.) 



The learned and the unlearned, seemed never tired of telling about 

 crocodilian ferocity — Cuvier, among the rest. Professor Edwards, in 

 his new work on Zoology, says "this animal is very ferocious and 

 dangerous, even to man." So says the new London Encyclopaedia, 

 which gives a very dramatic story about an alligator, that invaded a 

 South American city, and in the presence of the governor, carried off, in 

 his capacious jaws, a living man ! Mrs. Trollope's story, which follows, 

 has become classical, and is quoted as authority. The scene is laid in 

 Louisiana, the hero is a squatter. The poet is a lady : "towards day- 

 break; the husband and father was awakened by a faint cry, and looking 

 up, beheld relics of three of his children scattered over the floor, and an 

 enormous crocodile, with several young ones around her, occupied in 

 devourino; the remnants of their horrid meal. He looked around for a 

 weapon, but finding none, and aware that he could do nothing, he raised 

 himself gently on his bed, and contrived to crawl from thence through a 

 window, hoping that his Mife, w^hom he left sleeping, might with the 

 remaining children, rest undiscovered till his return. He flew to the 

 nearest neighbor, and besought his aid; in less than half an hour, two 

 men returned with him, all three armed ; but, alas ! they were too late ! 

 the wife and her two babes lay mangled on their bloody bed." (Six 

 killed.) Captain Alexander, a voluminous writer of travels, who visited 

 Louisiana, in 1831, says, the people "are obliged to keep a sharp look 

 out lest their children should be snapped up by alligators." In Lace- 

 pede's Natural History, just from the French press, an engraving is 

 given, representing an alligator as swallowing a negro ! This work, 

 quotes M. de la Coudreniere's account of the Louisiana crocodile, (Jowrwa^ 

 de Physique, 1782) , in which he sets forth, that this animaiyeecZ* on men, 

 particularly negroes — '''• pariiculiercment les negres''^ — and that it roars as 

 loud as a bull ! Other writers say, that this animal prefers negroes to all 

 other kinds of diet. If this be true, the fondness is mutual. A gentleman 

 of New Orleans, once a planter, assures me, that his slaves w^ere in the 

 habit of eating alligators, which, invariably made them sick. All his 

 authority was insuflicient to prevent this practice. The sickness was so 

 frequent and so peculiar, that he could readily recognize it without difii- 

 culty. He gave emetics for its cure. The suspected substance was 

 always brought up ; though the negroes always denied having eaten the 



given — none of which is, perhaps better, poetically or philosophically speaking, 

 than that of Pope, on the migration of birds : 



'' Who bade the stork, Columbus-like explore 

 Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 

 "Who calls the council, states the certain day, 

 Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 

 For practical purposes, the syllogisms of Aristotle are often not so satisfac- 

 tory as instinct, nor bo logical, nor so certain. 



