REPTILIA—CROCODILE. 693 
strument of destruction is the tail; with a single blow of this, it has often 
overturned a canoe, and seized upon the poor savage, its conductor. 
Though not so powerful, yet it is very terrible even upon land. The 
crocodile seldom, except when pressed by hunger, or with a view of deposit- 
ing its eggs, leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along upon the 
surface, and seize whatever animals come within its reach; but when this 
method fails, it then goes closer to the bank. Disappointed of its fishy prey, 
it there waits, covered up among the sedges, in patient expectation of some 
land animal that may come to drink; the dog, the bull, the tiger, or man 
himself. Nothing is to be seen of the insidious destroyer as the animal ap- 
proaches; nor is its retreat discovered till it be too late for safety. It seizes 
the victim with a spring, and goes at a bound much faster than so unwieldy 
an animal could be thought capable of; then, having secured the creature 
with both teeth and claws, it drags it into the water, instantly sinks with it 
te the bottom, and in this manner quickly drowns it. 
The crocodile, brought into subjection, or bred up young, is used to divert 
and entertain the great men of the East. It is often managed like a horse; 
a curb is put into its mouth, and the rider directs it as he thinks proper 
Though awkwardly formed, it does not fail to proceed with some degree of 
swiftness, and is thought to move as fast as some of the most unwieldy of 
our own animals, the hog or the cow. 
Along the rivers of Africa, this animal is sometimes taken in the same 
manner as the shark. Several Europeans go together in a large boat, and 
throw out a piece of beef upon a hook and strong fortified line, which the 
erocodile seizing and swallowing, is drawn along, floundering and struggling, 
until its strength is quite exhausted, when it is pierced in the belly, which 
is its tenderest part; and thus, after numberless wounds, is drawn ashore. 
In this part of the world, also, as well as at Siam, the crocodile makes an 
object of savage pomp, near the palaces of their monarchs. Phillips in- 
forms us, that at Sabi, on the Slave Coast, there are two pools of water near 
the royal palace, where crocodiles are bred, as they breed carp in the ponds 
in Europe. 
There is a very powerful smell of musk about all these animals. Travel- 
ters are not agreed in what part of the body these musk-bags are contained; 
but the most probable opinion is, that this substance is amassed in glands 
under the legs and arms. The crocodile’s flesh is, at best, very bad, 
tough eating; but, unless the musk-bags be separated, it is insupportable. 
The negroes themselves cannot well digest the flesh; but a crocodile’s egg 
is to them the most delicate morsel in the world. 
All crocodiles breed near fresh waters; and for this purpose the female, 
when she comes to lay, chooses a place by the side of a river or some fresh 
water lake, to deposit her brood in. She always pitches upon an extensive 
sandy shore, where she may dig a hole without danger of detection from the 
eround being fresh turned up. There she deposits from eighty to a hundred 
