THE CROCODILE. 



395 



those immense rivers that roll through exten- 

 sive and desolate kingdoms, where arts have 

 never penetrated, where force only makes dis- 

 tinction, and the most powerful animals exert 

 their strength with confidence and security. 

 Those that sail up the river Amazon, 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 

 Cayman or Alligator. Travellers, however, 

 have rather made the distinctions than Nature ; 

 for in the general outline, and in the nature 

 of these two animals, they are entirely the 

 same. It would be speaking more properly 

 to call these animals the Crocodiles of the 

 eastern and western world ; for, in books of 

 voyages, they are so entirely confounded 

 together, that there is no knowing whether the 

 Asiatic animal be the crocodile of Asia, or 

 the alligator of the western world. The dis- 

 tinctions usually made between the crocodile 

 and alligator are these : the body of the cro- 

 codile is more slender than that of the alliga- 

 tor ; its snout runs off tapering from the fore- 

 head, like that of a grayhound ; while that of 

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

 dog. The crocodile has a much wider swal- 

 low, and is of an ash-colour; the alligator is 

 black, varied 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. 



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 the descrip- 

 tion which is given of it, both externally and 

 internally, 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 



largest measured ten feet in length, and four feet girth, 

 the head being exactly two feet long. Besides these 

 great fellows, a multitude of little ones, nine inches long, 

 were caught alive, many of which, being carried on 

 board, became great favourites amongst the sailors, whose 

 queer taste in the choice of pets has frequently been 

 noticed, * 7 



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 called, 

 had five fingers ; the two last of which had no 

 nails, and were of a conical figure. The 

 hinder legs, including the thigh and paw, 

 were two feet two inches long ; the paws, 

 from the joint to the extremity of the longest 

 claws, were above nine inches ; they were 

 divided into four toes, of which three were 

 armed with large claws, the longest of which 

 was an inch and a half ; these toes were united 

 by a membrane, like those of a duck, but 

 much thicker. The head was long, and had 

 a little rising at the top ; but the rest was 

 flat, and especially towards the extremity of 

 the jaws. It was covered by a skin, which 

 adhered firmly to the skull and to the jaws. 

 The skull was rough and unequal in several 

 places ; and about the middle of the forehead 

 there were two bony crests, about two inches 

 high : the skull between these two crests was 

 proof against a musket-ball ; for it only ren- 

 dered the part a little white that it struck 

 against. The eye was very small, in propor- 

 tion to the rest of the body, and was so placed 

 within its orbit, that the outward part, when 

 the lid was closed, was only an inch long, 

 and the line running parallel to the opening 

 of the jaws. It was covered with a double 

 lid, one within and one without: that within, 

 like the nictitating membrane in birds, was 

 folded in the great corner of the eye, and had 

 a motion towards the tail, but being transpa- 

 rent, it covered the eye without hindering the 

 sight. The iris was very large in proportion 

 to the globe of the eye, and was of a yellow- 

 ish gray colour. Above the eye the ear was 

 placed, which opened from above downwards, 

 as if it were by a kind of spring, by means of 

 a solid, thick, cartilaginous substance. The 

 nose was placed in the middle of the upper 

 jaw, near an inch from its extremity, and was 

 perfectly round and flat, being near two inches 

 in diameter, of a black, soft, spongy substance, 

 not unlike the nose of a dog. The jaws 

 seemed to shut one within another ; and no- 

 thing can be more false than that the animal's 

 under jaw is without motion ; it moves like 

 the lower jaw in all other animals, while the 

 upper is fixed to the skull, and absolutely im- 

 movable. The animal had twenty-seven 

 cutting teeth in the upper jaw, and fifteen in 

 the lower, with several void spaces between 

 them : they were thick at the bottom, and 

 sharp at the point, being all of different sixes, 

 except ten large hooked ones, six of which 

 were in the lower jaw, and four in the upper. 

 The mouth was fifteen inches in length, and 

 eight and a half in breadth, where broadest. 

 The distance of the two jaws, when opened 



