ALLIGATOR 193 



discrimination, however, of Blumenbach and some 

 others seems in reality to prove that the Alligator 

 or American Crocodile is specifically distinct from 

 the Nilotic, though the difference is not such as 

 immediately to strike a general observer. The 

 leading difference, if it he allowed to constitute a 

 distinction of species, seems to be, that the head 

 of the Alligator is rather smooth on the upper part 

 than marked with those very strong rugosities and 

 hard carinated scales which appear on that of the 

 Crocodile ; and that the snout is considerably 

 flatter and wider, as well as more rounded at the 

 extremity. The Alligator arrives at a size not 

 much inferior to that of the Crocodile, specimens 

 having been often seen of eighteen or twenty feet 

 in length. 



" Though the largest and greatest numbers of 

 Alligators," says Catesby, " inhabit the torrid 

 zone, the continent abounds with them ten de- 

 grees more north, particularly as far as the river 

 A cus in Xorth Carolina, in the latitude of about 

 33, beyond which I have never heard of any, 

 which latitude nearly answers to the northermost 

 parts of Africa, where they are likewise found. 

 They frequent not only salt rivers near the sea, 

 but streams of fresh water in the upper parts of 

 the country, and in lakes of salt and fresh water, 

 on the banks of which they lie lurking among 

 reeds, to surprise cattle and other animals. In 

 Jamaica, and many parts of the continent, they 

 are found about twenty foot in length : they can- 

 not be more terrible in their aspect than they are 



v. in. p. i. 13 



