400 WESTERN HAITI. ' 



the Phocidcs. Mr. Heneiken conjectured that by 

 this instinct they regulated the buoyancy and gravi- 

 tation of their bodies with relation to the water." 



" The verdant marshes of the Ester in Western 

 Haiti, where I first saw the Cayman, is the feeding 

 ground of numerous cattle. Clumps of acacia and 

 tufts of bamboos festooned with lianas, and embel- 

 lished with blooming nympheeas floating on the 

 waters, contribute to vary the aspect of these swamps. 

 Egrets and gallinules inhabit them in numbers, and 

 ducks frequent them in vast flocks. Large Caymans 

 are to be seen there floating in the clear stream and 

 prowling in the thickets ; yet I saw naked herdsmen 

 and fishermen navigating the waters in narrow canoes 

 from six to nine feet long, and not more than eighteen 

 inches or two feet broad. They had tied their cami- 

 settes of blue and pink and white check around their 

 heads like turbans, having only the tanga or waist- 

 cloth round the naked body, that they might wade 

 the waters when necessary. Their singularly wild 

 appearance, in these mere logs of boats, pushed along 

 by poles, — the numerous cattle, and the multi- 

 tudinous birds, with the frequent Alligators, in the 

 midst of which man, bird, and beast were moving 

 about, was altogether one of the strangest wild sights 

 I had ever witnessed. 



" In the calm long-enduring quality of its nature, 

 the Alligator is really a timid animal. With the 

 advantage of an impervious armour, impenetrable 

 covering of scales, strength of limb, commanding 

 shelter of the water, and jaws whose clasp is an 

 inextricable hold, it feai's to attack an animal it is 



