S06 Dr Hancock on the Caimans, or 



presence of mind to stab the cayman in the eyes with a knife, 

 the water being shoal. This manoeuvre is inculcated from their 

 infancy. This, or a similar occurrence, is related by Humboldt 

 while at Angostura. 



At Metanza, the caymans are more shy than those of the 

 Essequibo, and take to the water before one can approach 

 them. These animals have become incomparably more bold 

 and ravenous than formerly in the Orinooko, since the feasting 

 they have had on human flesh during the carnage of the late 

 war. Before that time, they were scarcely dreaded, and up the 

 Essequibo they would rarely attack a man, or endeavour to 

 shun him, being, in those solitary retreats, quite unmolested. 

 They were so numerous, that my travelling companion, Mr 

 Sertema, at the same time, and without changing place, stood 

 and counted thirty caymans at a stagnant pool or lagune on 

 the Repoononie, the animals lying just below the water, and 

 their snouts projecting above it. Travelling, in 1811, in the vi- 

 cinity of the Takotu with some Portuguese, we had several 

 times occasion to swim across the smaller rivers and pools. To 

 frighten away the caymans, we had only to throw ourselves in- 

 to the water with violence, beat and cause a great splashing. 

 Such experiment in the Oronooko would now be a very danger- 

 ous one, as they overthrow small corials, and instantly seize any 

 person in the water. 



The cayman, it is said, does not strike, as generally supposed, 

 with its tail, but with its head, and that suddenly and with 

 tremendous force. The alligators do the same. 



The cayman of Orinooko takes its prey both on land and in 

 the water indifferently ; but it can devour it only on land, as it 

 cannot swallow under water without letting it in, such is the 

 formation of the glottis. The larynx is provided with a valve 

 which excludes the water by shutting over the orifices both of 

 the oesophagus and trachea. It cannot, however, bear long ex- 

 posure to the sun. 



The cayman swallows stones in considerable quantities. Some 

 think this is to satisfy hunger ; others, to assist digestion ; while 

 others believe it arises from an instinctive faculty to render the 

 body specifically heavier, and to enable the animal to^sink in the 

 water. I found, in a young cayman, two pieces of lead as well 



