1618 The Zoologist — April, 1869. 



theLoricata: there can be nothing but antagonism, and we know 

 what that means when the Teuton is one of the contending parlies — 

 the Loricata must go to the wall. A hundred years ago the Red 

 Indian and the alligator were "tenants in common" throughout the 

 Floridas. Honest William Barlram, who was sent lliither by Dr. 

 Leltsom, of London, to collect botanical specimens, and who has 

 never been suspected of the slightest tendency to exaggerate, draws 

 the following life-portrait of the alligator at home. The locale is the 

 bank of the St. John's river, the very spot where so many years after- 

 wards Edward Doubleday found their dermal bones in such abun- 

 dance. " How shall I express myself," says Bartram, " so as to 

 convey an adequate idea of the scene, and at the same time avoid 

 raising suspicions of my veracity ? The river in this place, from 

 shore to sliore, and perhaps nearly half a mile above and below me, 

 appeared to be one solid bank of fish of various kinds pushing through 

 the narrow pass of St. Juan's into the little lake on their return down 

 the river, and the alligators followed them in such incredible numbers 

 and so close together, from shore to shore, that it would have been 

 easy to have walked across on their heads had the animals been 

 harmless. Wliat expression can sufficiently declare the shocking 

 scene that for some minutes continued, whilst this mighty army of 

 fish were forcing the pass ? Thousands, 1 may say hundreds of 

 thousands of them, were caught and swallowed by the devouring 

 alligators. I saw an alligator take up several great fish at a time out 

 of the water, and just squeeze them between his jaws, while their tails 

 flapped about his ears and eyes ere he could swallow them. The 

 horrid noise of their closing jaws, their plunging amid the broken 

 banks of fish, and rising with their prey some feet upright above the 

 water, the floods of blood and water rushing from their mouths, and 

 the clouds of vapour issuing from their wide nostrils, were truly 

 frightful." * 



All this is rather foreign to my purpose, but it will not be without 

 interest to those who desire to study the reptile world. I now pro- 

 ceed to — 



Order HI. Sadrians (Sauria). 



Are covered with a tough but often flexible dermal envelope in 

 which no bones are embedded, but which has very numerous granular 



* ' Travels throujfh North and South Caralioa, Georgia, East and West Florida,' 

 &c. By William Bartram. Loudon, 1792. 



