120 CROCODILES. 



high, and appearing as if they had been clipped by the 

 hand of man. A copse of cedar, brazilletto, and lignum- 

 vita- rose behind this hedge. Palm-trees were rare. The 

 large quadrupeds of those regions, the jaguars, tapirs, 

 and peccaries had made openings in the hedge of sauso, 

 through which they passed when they came to drink at 

 the river. As they feared but little the approach of a 

 boat, the travellers had the pleasure of viewing them as 

 they paced slowly along the shore till they disappeared 

 in the forest, which they entered by one of the narrow 

 passes left at intervals between the bushes. 



When the shore was of considerable breadth, the hedge 

 of sauso remained at a distance from the river. In the 

 intermediate space they saw crocodiles, sometimes to the 

 number of eight or ten, stretched on the sand. Motion- 

 less, witli their jaws wide open, they reposed by each 

 other, without displaying any of those marks of affec- 

 tion observed in other animals living in society. The 

 troop separated as soon as they quitted the shore. These 

 monstrous creatures were so numerous, that throughout 

 the whole course of the river almost at every instant five 

 or six were in view. Yet at this period the swelling of 

 the Rio Apure was scarcely perceived ; and consequently 

 hundreds of crocodiles were still buried in the mud of 

 the savannahs. About four in the afternoon Humboldt 

 stopped to measure a dead crocodile which had been 

 east ashore. It was sixteen feet eight inches long; some 

 days after Bonpland found another, a male, twenty-two 

 feet three inches long. The Indians told them that at 

 San Fernando scarcely ;i year passed without two or 

 three grown-up persons, particularly women who fetched 

 water from the river, being devoured by these carnivo- 



