408 VENEZUELA. 



the quays, persons fall a prey to these reptiles, and 

 relates the story of an Indian of Margarita, whom, 

 when he had gone to anchor his canoe in a cove 

 where there were not three feet of water, a very 

 fierce Crocodile seized by the leg and carried off, 

 and who, though he had the astonishing presence 

 of mind to search for a pocket knife, and thrust his 

 fingers into the animal's eyes, was yet so firmly held, 

 that the reptile plunged to the bottom, and drowned 

 him, — he describes it distinctly as a Crocodile. The 

 fact mentioned of the animal plunging to the bottom 

 of the river with his victim and swimming up again 

 to devour him, is quite in accordance with the re- 

 markable organisation of the Crocodile for diving 

 and swimm.ing ; and I now suspect that the contra- 

 dictions relative to the daring and ferocity, and the 

 timidity and wariness of these monsters of the river 

 and the lagoon, are the distinctive characters of the 

 Crocodile and the Cayman. The protuberances which 

 protect the eyes of the Cayman, with the feebler 

 natatorial and diving powers of the feet, seem all 

 to have reference to the prowling instincts of the 

 crawler among morasses, rather than to the dashing 

 fierceness of the bold swimmer in rivers and rapids. 

 Humboldt says that the intrepid * natives in con- 

 tending with the Crocodile observe its manners as the 

 torero studies those of the bull ; and quietly calcu- 

 late the motions of the enemy, its means of attack 

 and the degree of its audacity ;' while the animals of 

 tlie Rio Neveri, and of the little river of Narigual, 

 which he mentions as exceedingly infesting the fords, 

 and speaks of both as Crocodiles and Caymans, he 



