334 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



seas. The Leathery Turtle is said to reach eight feet in length 

 and a weight of a thousand pounds. The Loggerhead Turtle 

 is even larger than this, and sometimes weighs as much as 

 fifteen hundred pounds. 

 ORDER II. The Crocodile and the Alligator belong 

 The Crocodile, respectively to the Eastern and the Western 

 Worlds. The former infests the rivers of Africa and Asia, 

 one species at least belonging to Australia. Some of the 

 best known varieties are those of the river Nile, the Gavial 

 of the Ganges being also among the more familiar species. 

 These formidable and unwieldy monsters grow to an immense 

 size, sometimes attaining to a length of twenty-five feet. 

 Their enormous jaws and innumerable sharp teeth (they 

 sometimes number a hundred) give them a terrible appear- 

 ance, while their hard scaly coats are invulnerable against 

 ordinary attack. Their point of weakness is their unwieldy 

 character, taking advantage of which the natives will dive 

 beneath them and stab them with knives in vulnerable parts. 

 The huntsman aims at their eyes as being the nearest approach 

 to their brains. Mvmgo Park relates that one of his guides 

 across the river Gambia was suddenly seized by a Crocodile 

 and pulled under the water; upon which the negro thrust 

 his fingers into the animal's eyes with such violence that it 

 quitted its hold, but seizing him again, he resorted to the 

 same expedient and with more success, as it again released 

 him, appeared stupified, and then swam down the river. 

 This man reached the bank bleeding very much, with long 

 and deep wounds in his thighs, which incapacitated him for 

 travel for six days. The crocodile lays an enormous number 

 of eggs on the banks of its native rivers, but most of these 

 are prevented from maturing by the birds and animals which 

 prey upon them. Mrs. Bowdich tells an amusing story of a 

 merchant who packed some crocodiles' eggs in sand for ship- 

 ment to England and placed the barrel containing them with 

 other goods in his warehouse. Strange and unaccountable 



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