154 ALLIGATOR. 



formidable and mischievous in their natures, spar- 

 ing neither man nor beast they can surprise, pull- 

 ing them down under water, that being dead, they 

 may with greater facility, and without struggle or 

 resistance, devour them. As quadrupeds do not 

 so often come in their way, they almost subsist on 

 fish ; but as Providence, for the preservation, or to 

 prevent the extinction of defenceless creatures, 

 hath in many instances restrained the devouring 

 appetites of voracious animals, by some impedi- 

 ment or other, so this destructive monster, by the 

 close connexion of his vertebrae, can neither swim 

 nor run any way than strait forward, and is con- 

 sequently disabled from turning with that agility 

 requisite to catch his prey by pursuit : therefore 

 they do it by surprise in the water as well as by 

 land ; for effecting which. Nature seems in some 

 measure to have recompensed their want of agility, 

 by giving them a power of deceiving and catch- 

 ing their prey by a sagacity peculiar to them, as 

 well as by the outer form and colour of their body, 

 which on land resembles an old dirty log or tree, 

 and in the water frequently lies floating on the sur- 

 face, and there has the like appearance, by which, 

 and his silent artifice, fish, fowl, turtle, and all 

 other animals are deceived, suddenly catched and 

 devoured." 



Carnivorous animals get their food with more 

 difficulty and less certainty than others, and are 

 often necessitated to fast a long time, which a 

 ^slow concoction enables them to endure : reptiles 

 particularly, by swallowing what they eat whole, 



