

HABITS OF THE CBOCODIL*. 



of its prey. The animal, overcome by pain, plunged to the 

 bottom 01 the river, and, after having drowned the Indian, 

 came up to the surface of the water, dragging the dead body 

 to an island opposite the port. A great number of the 

 inhabitants of Angostura witnessed this melancholy spec- 

 tacle. 



The crocodile, owing to the structure of its larynx, of the 

 hyoidal bone, and of the folds of its tongue, can seize, though 

 not swallow, its prey under water; thus when a man disap- 

 pears, the animal is usually perceived some hours after 

 devouring its prey on a neighbouring beach. The number 

 of individuals who perish annually, the victims of their own 

 imprudence and of the ferocity of these reptiles, is much 

 greater than is believed in Europe. It is particularly so in 

 villages where the neighbouring grounds are often inundated. 

 The same crocodiles remain long in the same places. They 

 become from year to year more daring, especially, as the 

 Indians assert, if they have once tasted of human flesh. 

 These animals are so wary, that they are killed with diffi- 

 culty. A ball does not pierce their skin ; and the shot is 

 only mortal when it penetrates the throat or a part beneath 

 the shoulder. The Indians, who know little of the use of 

 fire-arms, attack the crocodile with lances, after the animal 

 has been caught with large pointed iron hooks, baited with 

 pieces of meat, and fastened by a chain to the trunk of a 

 tree. They do not approach the animal till it has struggled 

 a long time to disengage itself from the iron fixed in the 

 upper jaw. There is little probability that a country, in 

 which a labyrinth of rivers without number brings every 

 day new bands of crocodiles from the eastern back of the 

 Andes, by the Meta and the Apure, toward the coast of 

 Spanish Guiana, should ever be delivered from these reptiles. 

 All that will be gained by civilization will be, to render them 

 more timid and more easily put to flight. 



Affecting instances are related of African slaves, who have 

 exposed their lives to save those of their masters, who had 

 fallen into the jaws of a crocodile. A few years ago, between 

 Uritucu and the Mission de Abaxo, a negro, hearing the 

 cries of his master, flew to the spot, armed with a long 

 knife (machete), and plunged into the river. He forced the 

 crocodile, by putting out his eyes, to let go his prey and to 





