146 



NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, the cayma^i ; but the Spanilh failors remarking their- 

 , , p-reat refemblance to that little reptile, they called the 



firjft of them which they faw lagarto^ or lizard. When: 

 our countrymen arrived, and heard that name, they/ 

 called the creature a-lagarto^ whence is derived the wordi 

 CilligatOy or alligator. 



The great advantage of fuch repofitories of Naturali 

 Hiftory as the Britifh Mufeum is, that they enable the: 

 lover of nature and truth to be fatisfied by his own eyes- 

 of the extraordinary and alraoft incredible produ6tions of^ 

 nature. In the above-named colledlion may be feen a. 

 crocodile, differing in fome particulars, but chiefly in its 

 dimenfionSy from the creatures of the fame name ini 

 other parts of India. Though fo numerous in Bengal^ "h 

 never heard upon good authority of one much larger 

 than this, which meafures above twenty-one feet. Ic 

 was taken in the river Indus, but not till it had received 

 on many parts of its body feveral three-pound balls,- 

 many of which could not penetrate, or produce the leaii 

 effed: againfl his fcales. 



As I cannot fo eafily produce my voucher,. I muffe 

 pledge my veracity for another fpecimen, which I have 

 myfelf feen ; which proves to me that there have been 

 fome of this fpecies of more than twice the. fize of that 

 which may be meafured in the Mufeum. 



At Maeftricht, in 1781, I faw the head of a crocodile 

 petrified, which had been dug out of Mount Sam ^ Pierre : 

 I the 



