424 THE CAYMAN. 



habitant of the fresh waters, although occasionally he may be found 

 in the mouths of rivers where the water is salt ; but when this occurs, 

 we may conclude, to a certainty, that he has been carried down the 

 descending flood against his will. 



Whilst I was in Guiana, a cayman was killed in the salt water of 

 the Essequibo, just opposite to the island of Waakenham. 



We formerly learned from our nursery-books that animals of the 

 crocodile family have skins hard enough to turn a musket-ball. This 

 requires explanation. No part of the cayman's body is absolutely 

 proof against a musket-ball. Let it be recollected, that in shooting 

 at one of these reptiles, we stand invariably above it, so that the 

 ball from our gun, after striking the animal obliquely, flies off, and 

 merely leaves a contusion. Although the back is very hard, the 

 sides are comparatively tender, and can be easily pierced through 

 with an ordinary penknife. The tail is not near so hard as the 

 back, and, singular to tell, the tail of the smaller kind, about five 

 feet in length, is much stronger than that of the larger species. 



In a creek up the river Demerara, I could any day see an adult 

 cayman of this smaller species. It had chosen for its place of abode 

 a kind of recess amongst the flooded trees bordering on the creek ; 

 and it was so awake to danger that I could not get a shot at it. 

 After trying various and unsuccessful schemes to capture it, I took a 

 curial at last just large enough to hold two people. I squatted in 

 the prow, and Daddy Quashi steered it without making any stir in 

 the water. Having cocked my gun, and placed it against my 

 shoulder in a position ready to fire, the curial was allowed to drift 

 silently down the stream, when, just as we got opposite the place 

 where the cayman was lurking, I pulled the trigger and shot it. The 

 whole of the afternoon was spent in dissecting it, and I found it 

 fully as tenacious of life as the land-tortoise itself. 



The mouth of the cayman is furnished with a most formidable 

 row of teeth in each jaw, but they are peculiarly shaped for snatch 

 and swallow. He has no grinders ; hence no laceration of the food 

 can take place in the mouth. But a contest will often ensue 

 amongst the congregated reptiles, when the morsel is too large for 

 deglutition ; and then each individual snatches at what it can get, 

 and pulls away the piece. The nose of the cayman forms a pretty 



