412 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



no end to the laughter and shouting. At last a youth 

 of about fourteen years of age, on my calling to him, from 

 the bank, to do so, seized the reptile by the tail, and held 

 him tightly until, a little resistance being overcome, he 

 was able to bring it ashore. The net was opened, and the 

 boy slowly dragged the dangerous but cowardly beast to 

 land through the muddy water, a distance of about a 

 hundred yards. Meantime, I had cut a strong pole from 

 a tree, and as soon as the alligator was drawn to solid 

 ground, gave him a smart rap with it on the crown of his 

 head, which killed him instantly. It was a good-sized 

 individual ; the jaws being considerably more than a foot 

 long, and fully capable of snapping a man's leg in twain. 

 The species was the large cayman, the Jacare-uassu of 

 the Amazonian Indians (Jacare nigra). 



On the third day we sent our men in the boats to net 

 turtles in another larger pool, about five miles further 

 down the river, and on the fourth returned to Ega. 



It will be well to mention here a few circumstances 

 relative to the large Cayman, which, with the incident 

 just narrated, afford illustrations of the cunning, cow- 

 ardice and ferocity of this reptile. 



I have hitherto had but few occasions of mentioning 

 alligators, although they exist by myriads in the waters 

 of the Upper Amazons. Many different species are spoken 

 of by the natives. I saw only three, and of these two 

 only are common : one, the Jacare-tinga, a small kind 

 (five feet long when full grown) having a long slender- 

 muzzle and a black-banded tail ; the other, the Jacare- 

 uassu, to which these remarks more especially relate ; 

 and the third the Jacare-curua, mentioned in a former 

 chapter. The Jacare-uassu, or large Cayman, grows to 

 a length of eighteen or twenty feet, and attains an enor- 

 mous bulk. Like the turtles, the alligator has its 

 annual migrations, for it retreats to the interior pools and 

 flooded forests in the wet season, and descends to the main 

 river in the dry season. During the months of high 

 water, therefore, scarcely a single individual is to be seen 

 in the main river. In the middle part of the Lower 

 Amazons, about Obydos and Villa Nova, where many of 

 the lakes with their channels of communication with the 

 trunk stream, dry up in the fine months, the alligator 

 buries itself in the mud and becomes dormant, sleeping 

 till the rainy season returns. On the Upper Amazons, 



