THE LIZARD KIND. 



7J1 



CHAPTER CLXI. 



OF THE CROCODILE, AND ITS AFFINITIES. 



THE Crocodile is an animal placed at a 

 happy distance from the inhabitants of Europe, 

 and formidable only in those regions where 

 men are scarce, and arts are but little known. 

 In all the cultivated and populous parts of the 

 world, the great animals are entirely banish- 

 ed, or rarely seen. The appearance of such 

 raises at once a whole country up in arms to 

 oppose their force; and their lives generally 

 pay the forfeit of their temerity. The croco- 

 dile, therefore, that was once so terrible along 

 the banks of the river Nile, is now neither so 

 large, nor ils numbers so great, as formerly. 

 The arts of mankind have, through a course 

 of ages, powerfully operated to its destruc- 

 tion; and, though it is sometimes seen, it ap- 

 pears comparatively timorous arid feeble. 



To look for this animal in all its natural 

 terrors, grown to an enormous size, propa- 

 gated in surprising numbers, and committing 

 unceasing devastations, we must go to the 

 uninhabited regions of Africa and America, 

 to those immense rivers that roll through ex- 

 tensive and desolate kingdoms, where arts 

 have never penetrated, where force only makes 

 distinction, and the most powerful animals 

 exert their strength with confidence and se- 

 curity. Those that sail up the river Amazons, 

 or the river Niger, well know how numerous 

 and terrible those animals are in such parts 

 of the world. In both these rivers, they are 

 found from eighteen to twenty-seven feet long; 

 and sometimes lying as close to each other as 

 rafts of timber upon one of our streams. There 

 they indolently bask on the surface, no way 

 disturbed at the approach of an enemy, since, 

 from the repeated trials of their strength, they 

 found none that they were not able to subdue. 



Of this terrible animal there are two kinds ; 

 the Crocodile, properly so called, and the Cay- 

 man or Alligator Travellers, however, have 

 rather made the distinctions than nature; for 

 in the general outline, and in the nature of 

 these *wo animals, they are entirely the same. 



It would be speaking more properly to call 

 these animals the Crocodiles of the eastern 

 and the western world ; for in books of voy- 

 ages, they are so entirely confounded together, 

 that there is no knowing whether the Asiatic 

 animal be the crocodile of Asia, or the alliga- 

 tor of the western world. The distinctions 

 usually made between the crocodile and al- 

 ligator are these : the body of the crocodile 

 is more slender than that of the alligator; 

 its snout runs off tapering from the forehead, 

 like that of a greyhound ; while that of the 

 other is indented, like the nose of a lap-dog. 

 The crocodile has a much wider swallow, and 

 is of an ash-colour; the alligator is black, va- 

 ried with white, and is thought not to be so 

 mischievous. All these distinctions, however, 

 are very slight; and can be reckoned little 

 more than minute variations." 1 



This animal grows to a great length, being 

 sometimes found thirty feet long, from the tip 

 of the snout to the end of the tail : its most 

 usual length, however, is eighteen. One which 

 was dissected by the Jesuits at Siam, was of 

 the latter dimensions; and as the description 

 which is given of it, both externally and in- 

 ternally, is the most accurate known of this 

 noted animal, I must beg leave to give it as 

 I find it, though somewhat tedious. It was 

 eighteen feet and a half, French measure, in 

 length ; of which the tail was no less than 

 five feet and a half, and the head and neck 

 above two feet and a half. It was four feet 

 nine inches in circumference, where thickest. 

 The fore legs had the same parts and confor- 

 mation as the arms of a man, both within and 

 without. The hands, if they may be so call- 

 ed, had five fingers; the two last of which hud 

 no nails, and were of a conical figure. The 

 hinder legs, including the thigh and pa\v, were 



a The Crocodile has a scaly mail round its nt<k : but 

 the neck of the Alligator is naked : the tail of the Croco- 

 dile is likewiselurnished with two lateral crested 



