692 



REP TIL I A — CROCODILE, 



especially" towards the extremity of the jaws. It was covered hy a skin, 

 which adhered firmly to the skull and to the jaws. The skull was rough 

 and unequal in several places. The eye was very small in proportion to the 

 rest of the body. The jaws seemed to shut one upon the other; and no- 

 thing can be more false than that the animal's under jaw is without motion; 

 it moves, like the lower jaw in all other animals, while the upper is fixed to 

 the skull, and absolutely immoveable. The animal had twenty-seven cut- 

 ting teeth in the upper jaw, and fifteen in the lower, with several void spaces 

 between them. The distance of the two jaws, when opened as wide as they 

 could be, was fifteen inches and a half; this is a very wide yawn, and could 

 easily enough take in the body of a man. From the shoulders to the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, the animal was covered with large scales, of a square 

 form, disposed like parallel girdles. The creature was covered not only Avith 



these, but all over with a coat of armor ; which, however, contrary to what 

 iias been commonly asserted, was not proof against a musket ball. It had 

 310 bladder ; but the kidney sent the urine to be discharged by the anus. 

 There were sixty-two joints in the back bone, which, though very closely 

 united, had sufficient play to enable the animal to bend like a bow to the 

 right and the left; so that what we hear of escaping the creature by turning 

 cut of the right line, and of the animal's not being able to wheel readily after 

 its prey, seems to be fabulous. 



The strength of every part of the crocodile is very great ; and its arms, 

 ho\.\\ offensive and defensive, irresistible. Most naturalists have remarked, 

 from the shortness of its legs, the amazing strength of the tortoise; but 

 T/hat is the strength of such an animal, compared to that of the crocodile, 

 whose legs are very short, and whose size is so superior? Its principal in- 



