144 ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



Crocodiles reach a length of about 30 feet. One of these 

 monsters 29 feet long and 11 feet in girth was killed many 

 years ago in the Philippines where it apparently had been a 

 local terror for many years. Large Nile crocodiles are usually 

 about 15 feet in length, but sometimes much larger. Sir 

 Samuel Baker, writing in 1875, said of the crocodiles at Gon- 

 dokoro on the upper Nile near the Albert Nyanza that he 

 frequently saw them upwards of 18 feet in length, and that 

 there can be little doubt that they sometimes exceed 20. 



One of the American crocodiles, much like the crocodile of 

 the Nile, is found in the extreme south of Florida where it 

 reaches more than 14 feet in length and is not rarely 10 or 12. 

 This crocodile is pecuhar in living mainly in salt water marshes. 

 It is much more active and dangerous than the alligator from 

 which it is easily distinguished by its narrow pointed snout. 



The alligator in the southern states is known to reach 18 

 feet in length, possibly even 20, though in these days it rarely 

 exceeds 12. 



The wicked looking gavial of the Ganges reaches a length of 

 17 feet. There are much larger records, up to 30 feet or more, 

 but I suspect that these refer to crocodiles. 



The largest of the Hzards is a monitor from the little island 

 of Comodo between Flores and Sumbava in the East Indies, 

 which is known to reach 13 feet, and is said sometimes to be 

 much larger, 23 feet or even more. The largest American 

 lizards are the iguanas, about 5 feet long. 



Of the sea turtles the largest is the leather back which is 

 sometimes taken on the New England coast, though its home 

 is in the tropics. This reaches a length of about 7 feet and a 

 weight of about 900 pounds. The loggerhead, another of the 

 sea turtles, is of about the same weight as its maximum. At 

 the present day large individuals of both of these are very 



rare. 



On many isolated islands far from land, like the Galapagos 

 Islands, Aldabra, Mauritius, Bourbon and others, there live, or 

 have lived, gigantic land tortoises. In the Galapagos Islands 



