TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 



131 



of our hunters, whom we had sent before, standing on a bridge over 

 a sluggish stream, had given a j icart two wounds in the neck and 

 killed it. Some fishermen's huts being near, we procured a man with 

 a boat, and a large three-pronged iron fork, with which he groped 

 about at the bottom of the water, pierced the animal, and brought 

 it up. 



The length of this jacare was about six feet ; the colour was a 

 greenish grey, with some dark transverse stripes, especially on the 

 tail ; the belly was of a bright yellow without mixture. We were 

 greatly rejoiced at securing this handsome animal, which was still 

 new to us ; we loaded it on one of our mules, whence it diffused all 

 around an extremely disagreeable musky smell. The jacare of the 

 east coast of Brazil is far inferior to the gigantic crocodile of the old 

 world, and even to those met with in the countries of South America 

 nearer to the Equator. Humboldt found the body of the latter 

 covered with various birds ; and on the head of one of them, even 

 the tall flamingo had very oddly chosen its station. The jacarh are 

 very numerous in the Paraiba, and are sometimes eaten by the negroes. 

 Many fabulous stories are related of their voracity, but the kind here 

 spoken of, which is at the most eight or nine feet long, is not feared, 

 though some of the fishermen shewed marks on their feet, which they 

 said were caused by the bite of this animal ; at any rate it is probable 

 enough that they may, as we were told, have seized and devoured a 

 dog that was swimming across the river. In the almost stagnant 

 stream near the above-mentioned bridge, they were so numerous, that 

 we could always count several at a time ; but as we fired at some of 

 them at too great a distance, we made them shy, and could not ob- 

 tain any more than the specimen first shot. Near the stream we 

 found in the sandy soil, bushes of the eugenia pedunculata, a well- 

 known beautiful shrub, which produces the pleasant, red, fleshy, 

 quadrangular fruit, known in the country by the name of pitanga. 



