THE AMERICAN CROCODILE. 3 i 



In 1833, Curing the progress of the pearl fishery. Sir Robert Wilmot Horton employed 

 men to drag for Crocodiles in a pond which was infested with them in the immediate 

 vicinity of Aripo. The pool was about fifty yards in length by ten or twelve wide, 

 shallowing gradually to the edge, and not exceeding four or five feet in the deepest part. 



As the party approached the pond, from twenty to thirty reptiles, which had been 

 basking in the sun, rose and fled to the water. A net, specially weighted so as to sink 

 its lower edge to the bottom, was then stretched from bank to bank, and swept to the 

 farther end of the pond, followed by a line of men with poles to drive the Crocodiles 

 forward. So complete was the arrangement, that no individual could avoid the net ; 

 yet, to the astonishment of the Governor's party, not one was to be found when it was 

 drawn on shore, and no means of escape was apparent or possible except dashing into 

 the mud at the bottom of the pond." 



The extreme tenacity of life possessed by these reptiles is well exemplified, though in a 

 rather painful manner, by an incident which occurred in Ceylon. A fine specimen had 

 been caught by a hook, to all appearance killed, the viscera removed, and the aperture 

 kept open by a stick placed across it. A few hours afterwards the men came to their 

 victim with the intention of cutting off the head, but were much surprised to find the spot 

 vacant. On examination of the locality it was evident that the creature had recovered it- 

 self in some strange manner, crawled away for some distance, and made its escape into 

 the water. 



The same author also describes the habits of another species, the MARSH CROCODILE 

 (Crocodilus palustris), sometimes known by the names of MUGGER, or GOA ; an animal 

 which has a large range of locality, being found in Asia and Australia. Sometimes 

 this species grows to a great length ; there is in the British Museum a skull twenty-six 

 inches in length, denoting a total length of thirty-three feet. 



This animal is in the habit of traversing considerable distances in search of water, 

 but, according to the Singhalese, its feet are sadly cut in passing over the hard stony 

 ground. If it is baffled in its search, it returns to the exhausted pool, burrows beneath 

 the mud, and there waits until released by the rains. Sir E. Tennent mentions one 

 instance where he saw the recent impress of a Crocodile in the mud from which it had 

 just emerged, and he was told of a curious incident which befell an officer attached to 

 the surveying department. Having pitched his tent, he had retired to rest as usual, 

 but during the night he was disturbed by a movement of the earth below his bed. On 

 the following morning the mystery was solved by the appearance of a Crocodile, which 

 made its way from under the bed. 



As is the case with the common Crocodile of Egypt, the young of this reptile are 

 very small when hatched, but so fierce even in their early days, that they can be caught 

 by pushing a stick towards them, letting them bite it, and pulling them out before they 

 loosen their hold. A gentleman who has resided for eight years in Ceylon told me 

 that one of his friends was so taken with the appearance of these little reptiles that he 

 captured one, packed it carefully, and took it home. One arriving in his house he put 

 the Crocodile, then about nine or ten inches long, into a basin of water and left it. 

 Shortly afterwards a little boy, one of his children, peeped into the basin, and seeing 

 the Crocodile, gave it a push with his finger. The fierce little creature at once snapped 

 at the offending finger, and held it so tightly that the poor child could not shake it off, 

 and ran screaming about the house with the young Crocodile dangling at the end of 

 his finger, until it was removed by an attendant. 



ANOTHER well-known species is the AMERICAN CROCODILE, so often and so wrongly 

 termed the alligator. This reptile is found in the tropical and hotter parts of America, 

 and is very common in some localities. When first hatched, the young seem to feed 

 only on living insects, and according to the experiments of M. Bosc, they would not 

 even touch the insects with which they were supplied until their intended prey began 

 to crawl. In Carolina these creatures pass their winter under the mud. During the 

 summer they become lively at night, and make such a hideous bellowing that a person 

 unaccustomed to it has no chance of sleeping, They also have a habit of clattering 

 their jaws together with a loud noise. 



