Reptiles. 153 



shell is rough, and of a dirty white colour. Probably it is quite white 

 when first deposited. 



This formidable animal being able to exist either in water or on the 

 land, may be styled amphibious to the fullest extent of the word. 

 Master Swainson, notwithstanding his " compassion for the poor ani- 

 mals," and his interested wish to make his readers believe that they 

 are of a timid nature, would have found himself awkwardly situated 

 had he been in my position when I attacked the cayman mentioned in 

 the * Wanderings; ' — the Indians positively refusing to drag it out of 

 the water, until I had placed myself betwixt them and danger. 



I once saw a cayman in the Oronoque thirty feet in length, and an- 

 other of the same size in the Essequibo. This animal is an inhabi- 

 tant of the fresh waters, although occasionally he may be found in the 

 mouths of rivers where the water is salt ; but when this occurs we may 

 conclude to a certainty, that he has been carried down the descending 

 flood against his will. 



Whilst I was in Guiana a cayman was killed in the salt water of the 

 Essequibo, just opposite to the island of Waakenham. 



We formerly learned from our nursery books that animals of the 

 crocodile family have skins hard enough to turn a musket-ball. This 

 requires explanation. No part of the cayman's body is absolutely 

 proof against a musket-ball. Let it be recollected, that in shooting 

 at one of these reptiles, we stand invariably above it, so that the ball 

 from our gun, after striking the animal obliquely, flies off" and merely 

 leaves a contusion. 



Although the back is very hard, the sides are comparatively tender, 

 and can be easily pierced through with an ordinary pen-knife. The 

 tail is not near so hard as the back, and singular to tell, the tail of the 

 smaller kind, about five feet in length, is much stronger than that of 

 the larger species. 



In a creek up the river Demerara, I could any day see an adult cay- 

 man of this smaller species. It had chosen for its place of abode, a 

 kind of recess amongst the flooded trees bordering on the creek ; and 

 it was so awake to danger, that I could not get a shot at it. After 

 trying various and unsuccessful schemes to capture it, I took a curial 

 at last just large enough to hold two people. I squatted in the prow, 

 and Daddy Quashi steered it without making any stir in the water. 

 Having cocked my gun, and placed it against my shoulder in a posi- 

 tion ready to fire, the curial was allowed to drift silently down the 

 stream, when, just as we got opposite the place where the cayman was 

 lurking, I pulled the trigger and shot it. The whole of the afternoon 



