Tliis iiliotosi'iipli. taken on August 11, 1889, is believed to be tin; first ever taken of a living 

 Florida crocodile, Crocodylus acutus Cuvier. A few days later I shot what I thought the record 

 specimen, 14 feet 2 inches long (it was sent to Yale University), but discovered many years after- 

 ward that in 1875. fourteen years previous, Dr. William T. Hornaday, director of the New York 

 Zoological Park, had shot a specimen of just the same size. In later years I often visited the 

 Florida crocodiles and found great sport in photographing them. It was a matter of ethics that a 

 (•rocodile should be free at the time his I'icture was taken. This species of crocodile is found not only in 

 southern Florida, but also through the Greater Antilles (except Porto Rico), Mexico, and along both 

 coasts of Central America to Ecuador and Colombia 



The Florida Crocodile 



By A. W. D I M (; K i 



^^'itll illustrations from photographs by the Author and his son, Julian A. Dimock 



T 



HAT the authors of dictionaries 

 were supermen I always be- 

 lieved until I began to make 

 the acquaintance of lexicographers and 

 learned that scissors and paste did most 

 of the authoring. 



So in other lines, it is usually im- 

 possible really to tree an originator, or 

 even a discoverer, of anything. Lever- 

 rier's discovery of Neptune was ac- 

 counted the crowning triumph of 

 human reasoning, but Adams ante- 

 dated him by months, and many work- 

 ers had lifted the science of astronomy 

 to a plane which made the discovery in- 



Mr. A. W. Dimock, member of the Authors Club, New York, and of the Camp Fire Club of America, 

 is the autlior of Florida Enchantments, Wall Street and the Wildn, and other books and articles setting 

 forth the natural beauties of Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States and tlie fascina- 

 tion of the region for the sportsman. His writings are illustrated by large series of photograi)hs taken 

 by Mr. Dimock and his son, Julian A. Dimock. 



' September 11 brought the announcement of the sudden deatli of Mr. Dimock at his home at Peeka- 

 mose, New York. 



evitable. Amerigo Vespucci gave his 

 name to the new world which Colum- 

 bus discovered. I have even originated 

 patentable ideas myself, only to find in 

 the Patent Office the evidence that from 

 one to a dozen or a hundred people had 

 originated the same thing. 



In exploiting some of the creatures 

 of the wild, I have never been a pio- 

 neer; always the trail had been blazed, 

 usually by some one who was pursuing 

 his avocation with a singleness of pur- 

 pose that left no room for thought of 

 the distinction of discovery. 



Uncle Remus' naming; of the toad dis- 



u: 



