354 THE CROCODILE. 



violence down its throat, and with the other hand, re- 

 peatedly stabs him, until the exhausted animal expires. 



Though, in some parts of the world, the crocodile is 

 so formidable, there are others where its nature seems 

 to have undergone a total change ; and, instead of 

 spreading either terror or devastation around them, they 

 are not only harmless, but sportively tame ; and in the 

 river San Domingo, it is no uncommon thing to see 

 children riding upon their backs. It is only in those 

 unpeopled countries, where mankind have few oppor- 

 tunities of exerting their power, that this animal be- 

 comes the terror of its few inhabitants ; for there are 

 many instances of their being made subservient to the 

 human race. 



The Siamese, in particular, take large numbers of 

 them when young ; and subjection has the power of 

 producing such a change, that they will even submit 

 to the direction of a bridle, and show no signs of a de- 

 sire to dispute their rider's will. 



All crocodiles breed near fresh waters ; and though 

 they sometimes may be found in the sea, it is chance 

 which conducts them into that element, and not nature 

 or design. The female always pitches upon a sandy 

 shore for the purpose of depositing her eggs ; and, 

 after scratching a deep hole for their reception, lays 

 from eighty to an hundred, as large as a tennis-ball : 

 these she covers up with the greatest circumspection ; 

 but returns to the same spot on the two following days, 

 on each of which she deposits the same number, and 

 then leaves them to the nurturing influence of the sun. 

 Instinct teaches her to return at the end of thirty days, 

 for the purpose of scratching away the sand ; some of 

 the brood immediately ascend her back, and others run 

 undirected toward the stream, at which place all na- 



