296 The Andes akd the Amazon. 



resents the shark family. As a whole, the fishes of the 

 Amazon have a marine character peculiarly their own. 



The reptilian inhabitants of this inland sea are intro- 

 duced by numerous batrachians, water-snakes {Heliojps), 

 and anacondas. But alligators bear the palm for ugliness, 

 size, and strength. In summer the main river swarms 

 with them; in the wet season they retrekt to the interior 

 lakes and flooded forests. It was for this reason that we 

 did not see an alligator on the I^apo. At low water they 

 are found above the entrance of the Cm-aray. About Obi- 

 dos," where many of the pools dry up in the fine months, 

 the alligator buries itself in the mud, and sleeps till the 

 rainy season returns. " It is scarcely exaggerating to say 

 (wi'ites Bates) that the waters of the Solimoens are as well 

 stocked with large alligators in the dry season as a ditch in 

 England is in summer with tadpoles." There are three or 

 four species in the Amazon. The largest, the Jacare-uassii 

 of the natives, attains a length of twenty feet. The Ja- 

 care-tinga is a smaller kind (only five feet long when full 

 grown), and has the long, slender muzzle of the extinct 

 teleosaurus. The South American alligators are smaller 

 than the crocodiles of the Nile or Ganges, and they .are 

 also inferior in rank. The head of the Jacare-uassu (the 

 ordinary species) is broad, while the gavial of India has a 

 long, narrow muzzle, and that of the Egyptian lizard is ob- 

 long. The dentition differs : while in the Old World sau- 

 rian the teeth interlock, so that the two jaws are brought 

 close together, the teeth in the upper jaw of the Amazo- 

 nian cayman pass by the lower series outside of them. 

 The latter has therefore much less j)ower. It has a ven- 

 tral cuirass as well as dorsal, and it is web-footed, while 

 the crocodile has the toes free — another mark of inferior- 

 ity. Sluggish on land, the alligator is very agile in its el- 

 ement. It never attacks man when on his guard, but it is 



