164 Reptiles. 



was spent in dissecting it, and I found it fully as tenacious of life as 

 the land tortoise itself. 



The mouth of the cayman is furnished with a most formidable row 

 of teeth in each jaw, but they are peculiarly shaped for snatch and 

 swallow. He has no grinders ; hence no laceration of the food can 

 take place in the mouth. But a contest will often ensue amongst the 

 congregated reptiles, when the morsel is too large for deglutition ; and 

 then each individual snatches at what it can get, and pulls away 

 the piece. 



The nose of the cayman forms a pretty rotund figure. This, toge- 

 ther with the rough protuberance which guards the eye from above, 

 may be modelled by my new process, and rendered as elevated as it 

 appeared during the life of the animal. 



When Swainson tells us that the snout of crocodiles and caymans 

 is unusually depressed, I know immediately that he has been at his 

 wonted employment of examining a dried skin. 



In dissecting a cayman for preservation, you may separate the tail 

 at every other joint. This division renders the process extremely easy. 

 The head also may be divided from the body, and replaced afterwards 

 with great success. 



After the whole of the dissection is finished, you steep the skin for 

 about a quarter of an hour in the solution of corrosive sublimate, and 

 then by means of sand you proceed to restore the form and feature 

 which the animal possessed in life. 



An adept in this new mode of preparing zoological specimens for 

 Museums (see the Essays) would be enabled to bring home an alligator 

 very superior indeed to those hung up in apothecaries' shops, during 

 the life of Shakespeare. — " An alligator stuffed." 



My cayman is now in as good condition as it was on the day in 

 which I dissected it ; and it will set decay at defiance for centuries to 

 come, provided no accident befal it. 



I have mentioned briefly in the Wanderings, an account which the 

 governor of Angustura gave me of the boldness and ferocity of the 

 cayman. I may here repeat the story somewhat more at length. 



In the year 1808, I carried Lord Collingwood's despatches up the 

 Oronoque to the city of Angustura, where the Spanish governor, Don 

 Felipe de Ynciarte resided. I corresponded with him for some time 

 afterwards. He was a soldier, of vast information in the Natural His- 

 tory of the country ; and had been a great explorer in his day. He 

 showed me a large map of Spanish Guiana, having made it from his 

 own personal survey of those regions in early life. On the breaking 



