423 



&one, in America as in Egypt, this animal attains 

 the same size. The species so abundant in the 

 Apure, the Oroonoko % and the Rio de la Mag- 

 dalena, is not a cayman, or alligator, but a real 

 crocodile, with feet dentatedat the external edges, 

 analogous to that of the Nile. When it is recol- 

 lected, that the male enters the age of puberty 

 only at ten years, and that it's length is then 

 eight feet, we may presume, that the crocodile 

 measured by Mr. Bonpland was at least twenty- 

 eight years old. The Indians told us, that at 

 San Fernando scarcely a year passes, without 

 two or three grown up persons, particularly 

 women who fetch water from the river, being 

 drowned by these carnivorous lizards. They 

 related to us the history of a young girl of Uri- 

 tucu, who by singular intrepidity and presence 

 of mind, saved herself from the jaws of a cro- 

 codile. When she felt herself seized, she sought 

 the eyes of the animal, and plunged her fingers 

 into them with such violence, that the pain 

 forced the crocodile to let her loose, after having 

 bitten off the lower part of her left arm. The 

 girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of 

 blood she lost, happily reached the shore, swim- 

 ming with the hand she had still left. In those 

 desert countries, where man is ever wrestling 



* It is the arm of the Tanianack Indians, the amana of the 

 Ma) pure Iudians, the crocodiius acittus of Mr. Cuvier. 



