354 CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS 



creature had crawled for some distance, and made its escape 

 into the water. We all know the intense hatred which sailors 

 bear to the sliark, 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 sub- 

 stances ; 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. 



Like the sea-turtles, the crocodiles generally deposit their eggs, 

 which 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 whicli 

 could hardly have been expected in a cold-blooded reptile. 

 Raising 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 Kichard 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 creature of prodigious 

 size, suddenly emerged with an appalling roar, making desperate 

 efforts to reach her wriggling and screeching offspring, and in- 

 creasing in rage every time Schomburgk tantalised her by hold- 

 ing it out to her. Having been wounded with an arrow, she retired 

 for a few moments, and then again returned with redoubled 

 fury, lashing the waters into foam by the repeated strokes of 



