106 On the Torpid State of 



The annexed engraving (See Plate I) is correctly 

 copied from an elegant drawing by Miss Anne Bar- 

 tram, of Kingsess, near Philadelphia. 



Editor. 



XVIII. Facts relative to the torpid state of the North. 

 American Alligator. By the Editor. 



IT has not, I think, been remarked by the 

 generality of the writers on natural history, that the 

 North- American Alligator passes, during the preva- 

 lence of cold weather, into the torpid state. This, 

 however, is, unquestionably, the case in some parts 

 of the continent. 



Mr. Bossu, a French writer, after telling us, that 

 these animals are numerous in the Red-River, one of 

 the western branches of the Missisippi, says, " they 

 are torpid during the cold weather, and lie in the 

 mud with their mouths open, into which the fish en- 

 ter as into a funnel, and neither advance nor go back. 

 The Indians then get upon their backs, and kill them 

 by striking their heads with hatchets, and this is a 

 kind of diversion for them*." 



Dr. Forster, the translator of the work, observes on 

 the preceding passage, that the " circumstance of the 

 alligator's being torpid during winter, is quite new, 



* Travels through thai part of North-America formerly called 

 Louisiana. English translation, vol. i. p. 367. London: 1771. 



