ALL ARE AGREED. 279 



a deux aretes, the other the crocodile of the marshes, 

 both of which inhabit the Ganges. 



The gavials being dismissed, a word on the cay- 

 mans. Undoubtedly these cannot be absolutely ac- 

 quitted ; but it has, nevertheless, been agreed to regard 

 them as much less dangerous than the crocodiles. 



The latter have now principally to be considered. 

 Let us pass on, then, to the crocodiles. 



Let us remark, in the first place, that there are 

 several kinds of them. We should be certainly de- 

 ceived were we to extend to the entire race observa- 

 tions made on such and such a species. There are 

 degrees in everything. One species might be very dan- 

 gerous to man, and another only slightly. Geoffrey 

 Saint Hilaire thought that there were two species of 

 crocodiles in the Nile the Vulgaris and the Suchus ; 

 and that opinion, after having been contested by 

 naturalists, has now been adopted by them. Now, 

 according to Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, the Suchus has 

 a much more friendly disposition than the common 

 crocodile. Travellers who blacken the characters of 

 the crocodiles of the great river of Macassar, and the 

 Sieur de Brue, who paint couleur de rose those of the 

 Bio San Domingo, make no pretence of describing the 

 whole genus. The first, on the contrary, states that 

 " crocodiles are more dangerous in the Macassar river 

 than in the other great rivers of the East." 



