ii8 JUNGLE ISLAND 



important item. I knew that a big ten-foot 

 crocodile liked that inlet, too. Sometimes I saw 

 him, floating like a log at the edge of the water. 

 Sometimes he moved on up the little creek as 

 our boat landed. But even when he was out of 

 sight he made swimming a little too exciting to 

 be worth trying, particularly when I knew that 

 the marines stationed on the mainland near by 

 were under orders not to swim in the lake. It 

 should be added that there are tropical workers 

 much more experienced than I, and no hotter or 

 more anxious for a bath, who take a daily swim 

 regardless of crocodiles. 



A number of these crocodiles, which the natives 

 called alligators, were to be seen in the quiet 

 bays along the margin of the lake. One of them 

 I saw day after day from the train window as 

 I commuted from the jungle back to civilization 

 in Ancon. My men brought me big, blunt-ended 

 crocodile eggs (Fig. 51) which they found near 

 the lake shore in February. 



It is not likely that there were many crocodiles 

 in this stretch of country before the lake was 

 made. They are known to live in the deeper 

 holes of rivers, but they prefer to live in lakes. 

 Along rivers they are usually solitary and scat- 

 tered, but in lakes their numbers increase rapidly. 

 In Gatun Lake they have increased so fast that 

 they have driven their smaller relatives, the 

 caimans, back up into the pools of the little 



