Sm THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



by Sir E. Tennent. A gentleman at Galle having caught on a 

 baited hook an unusually large one, it was disembowelled by 

 liis coolies, the aperture in the stomach being left expanded by 

 a stick placed across it. On returning, in the afternoon, with 

 a view to secure the head, they found that the creature had 

 crawled for some distance, and made its escape into the water. 



We all know the intense hatred which sailors . bear to the 

 shark, and with what savage delight they drag one on board, 

 and hack him to pieces with their knives before life is extinct ; 

 but the American Indian is a no less inveterate enemy of the 

 Cayman, and, when occasion offers, lets him feel the full extent 

 of his inventive cruelty. Among the Javanese, on the contrary, 

 we find the crocodile considered as a sacred animal, on account 

 of his clearing the rivers and lagunes of putrefying substances ; 

 and the friendship even seems to be reciprocal, as Bennett saw 

 Javanese convicts busy working up to their middle in water, 

 quite near the monsters. 



J^ike the sea-turtles, the crocodiles generally deposit their 

 eggs, wiiich are about the size of those of a goose, and covered 

 with a calcareous shell, in holes made in the sand, leaving 

 them to be hatched by the warm rays of the tropical sun. In 

 some parts of America, however, they have been observed to 

 resort to a more ingenious method, denoting a degree of 

 provident instinct which could hardly have been expected in a 

 cold-blooded reptile. Eaising a small hillock on the banks of 

 the river, and hollowing it out in the middle, they collect a 

 quantity of leaves and other vegetable matters, in which they 

 deposit their eggs. These are covered with the leaves, and are 

 hatched by the heat extricated during their putrefaction, along 

 with that of the atmosphere. 



Callous to every other generous sentiment, the female 

 Cayman continues for some time after their birth to watch over 

 her young with great care. One day, as Eichard Schomburgk, 

 accompanied by an Indian, was busy fishing on the banks of 

 the Essequibo, he suddenly heard in the water a strange noise, 

 resembling the mewing of young cats. With eager curiosity 

 he climbed along the trunk of a tree overhanging the river, 

 about three feet above the water, and saw beneath him a brood 

 of young alligators, about a foot and a half long. On his 

 seizing and lifting one of them out of the water, the mother, a 



