292 OUT OF nOORiS. 



Such a man was Charles Waterton, and such his re- 

 ception ; the ride on the cayman's back being treated 

 by the press after the same fashion as Le Vaillant's 

 giraflfe and Bruce's ox. Time, however, is the true 

 critic ; giraffes are now as familiar as donkeys ; eating 

 flesh ' in the blood ' is now known to be a custom 

 existing in many nations from time immemorial ; and 

 the ride on the cayman has long been deprived of all 

 marvel, except as a bold and dashing method of 

 securing a powerful animal without damaging the 

 skin.* 



The discoveries of Mr. Waterton in Guiana are 

 too well known to need even a passing reference ; but, 

 though better known to fame, are quite equalled in im- 

 portance by the perpetual labours of half a century em- 

 ployed in observing the habits of living beings of our 

 own land, and restoring to the dead skin the energetic 

 contours of the living form. 



There is perhaps no place in England where the 

 greatest natural advantages have been so promptly 

 seized and so largely improved as at Walton Hall, and 

 it really seems almost impossible for such a combina- 

 tion of favourable conditions to be elsewhere achieved. 

 There are many devoted naturalists who would exult in 



' A clergyman of my acquaintance had in his employ, -while he was 

 resident in Guiana many years ago, one of the men who were with Mr. 

 Waterton when he captured the alligator. The singular four-pointed 

 hook with which the reptile was caught was at Walton Hall, covered 

 with the marks of the alligator's teeth, and within a few feet hung the 

 skin of the creature itself. 



I 



