54 THE ALLIGATOR. 



held by all animals, and the care with which these, in 

 general, avoid their haunts, they are able to sustain a 

 privation of it for a great length of time. When 

 killed and opened, stones and other hard substances 

 are generally found in their stomach. In many that 

 Mr. Catesby examined there was nothing but muci- 

 lage and large pieces of wood, some of which weigh- 

 ed seven or eight pounds each : the angles were so 

 worn down that he fancied they must have lain there 

 for several months*. Two Alligators, thatDr.Brickell 

 saw killed in North Carolina, had in their bellies se- 

 veral sorts of snakes, and some pieces of wood ; and 

 in one of them was found a stone that weighed about 

 tour pounds f . 



The voracity of these animals is so great that they 

 do not spare even mankind when opportunity offers. 

 A short time before M. Navarette was at the Manil- 

 las, he was told that, as a young woman was washing 

 her feet in one of the rivers, an Alligator seized and 

 carried her off. Her husband, to whom she had been 

 but that morning married, hearing her screams,threw 

 himself headlong into the water, and with a dag- 

 ger in his hand, pursued the robber. He overtook, 

 and fought him with such success as to recover his 

 wife : but she, unfortunately for her brave rescuer, 

 was found to be dead J. 



The Alligators deposit their eggs, like the Croco- 

 dile and the Turtles, at two or three different periods, 



* Catesby, ii. 63. Browne's Jamaica, 461. + Briclcell, 13*° 



J. Navarette's Travels, Churchill's Coll. ii. 203. 



