NUMBERS. 239 



A recent account states that the rivers and lakes of 



9 



Ceylon are stocked with crocodiles. Their hideous 

 heads come out of the water ten or a dozen at a time. 

 They are very common in Jamaica. La Condamine 

 has seen a multitude of caymans from twelve to fifteen 

 feet long, and even longer, in the Guayaquil; some 

 stretched on the mud in the sun, others floating on 

 the water like trunks of trees covered with a knotty 

 desiccated bark. They abound in the Amazon, in the 

 Oyapoc, in the Bay de Vincent Pincon, and in the lakes 

 of that region, to such an extent that, according to 

 Lacepede, they impede by their multitude the navi- 

 gation of the boats. M. de la Borde relates, that 

 whilst running along the eastern shores of South 

 America in a canoe, he encountered a dozen great 

 caymans at the mouth of a little river which he 

 wished to enter. As these animals were obstructing 

 the passage, several shots were fired, in the hope of 

 dispersing them. This was useless, and the narrator 

 was obliged to wait for two hours before they thought 

 proper to retire. 



Let us pass now into Africa. The Dutch traveller 

 Hamel (" Hist. Gene des Voyages ") reports, that the 

 rivers of the Corea are infested with crocodiles. Bosman, 

 in his " Description de la Guinee," says that they are 

 found in all the rivers of that country, and that he has 



