ALLIGATORS 



413 



where the dry season is never excessive, it has not this 

 habit, but is Hvely all the year round. It is scarcely 

 exaggerating to say that the waters of the Solimoens are 

 as well-stocked with large alligators in the dry season, as a 

 ditch in England is in summer with tadpoles. During 

 a journey of five days which I once made in the Upper 

 Amazons steamer, in November, alligators were seen 

 along the coast almost every step of the way, and the 

 passengers amused themselves, from morning till night, 

 by firing at them with rifle and ball. They were very 

 numerous in the still bays, where the huddled crowds 

 jostled together, to the great rattling of their coats of 

 mail, as the steamer passed. 



The natives at once despise and fear the great cayman. 

 I once spent a month at Cai9ara, a small village of semi- 

 civilized Indians, about twenty miles to the west of Ega. 

 My entertainer, the only white in the place, and one of 

 my best and most constant friends, Senhor Innocencio 

 Alves Faria, one day proposed a half -day's fishing with 

 net in the lake, — the expanded bed of the small river on 

 which the village is situated. We set out in an open boat 

 with six Indians and two of Innocencio' s children. The 

 water had sunk so low that the net had to be taken out 

 into the middle by the Indians, whence at the first draught, 

 two medium-sized alligators were brought to land. They 

 were disengaged from the net and allowed, with the 

 coolest unconcern, to return to the water, although the 

 two children were playing in it, not many yards off. We 

 continued fishing, Innocencio and I lending a helping hand, 

 and each time drew a number of the reptiles of different 

 ages and sizes, some of them Jacare-tingas ; the lake in 

 fact, swarmed with alligators. After taking a very large 

 quantity of fish (I took pains to count the diSerent species, 

 and found there were no less than thirty-five), we pre- 

 pared to return, and the Indians, at my suggestion, secured 

 one of the alligators with the view of letting it loose 

 amongst the swarms of dogs in the village. An individual 

 was selected about eight feet long : one man holding his 

 head and another his tail, whilst a third took a few lengths 

 of a flexible liana, and deliberately bound the jaws and 

 the legs. Thus secured, the beast was laid across the 

 benches of the boat, on which we sat during the hour and 

 a half's journey to the settlement. We were rather 

 crowded, but our amiable passenger gave us no trouble 



