266 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



It will be well to mention here a few circumstances 

 relative to the large Cayman, which, with the incident 

 just narrated, afford illustrations of the cunning, cow- 

 ardice and ferocity of this reptile. 



I have hitherto had but few occasions of mentioning 

 alligators, although they exist by myriads in the waters of 

 the Upper Amazons. Many different species are spoken 

 of by the natives. I saw only three, and of these two 

 only are common : one, the Jacare-tinga, a small kind 

 (five feet long when full grown) having a long slender 

 muzzle and a black-banded tail ; the other, the Jacare- 

 uassti, to which these remarks more especially relate ; 

 and the third the Jacare-curua, mentioned in a 

 former chapter. The Jacare-uassu, or large Cayman, 

 grows to a length of eighteen or twenty feet, and 

 attains an enormous bulk. Like the turtles, the alli- 

 gator has its annual migrations, for it retreats to the 

 interior pools and flooded forests in the wet season, 

 and descends to the main river in the dry season. 

 During the months of high water, therefore, scarcely a 

 single individual is to be seen in the main river. In 

 the middle part of the Lower Amazons, about Obydos 

 and Villa Nova, where many of the lakes with their 

 channels of communication with the trunk stream, dry 

 up in the fine months, the alligator buries itself in the 

 mud and becomes dormant, sleeping till the rainy 

 season returns. . On the Upper Amazons, where the dry 

 season is never excessive, it has not this habit, but is 

 lively all the year round. It is scarcely exaggerating 

 to say that the waters of the Solimoens are as well- 

 stocked with large alligators in the dry season, as a 



