NORTH AMERICA. 
i 25 
codiles fwimming abreaft of thefe buildings. Thefe 
nefts being fo great a curiofity to me, I was deter- 
mined at all events immediately to land and exa- 
mine them. Accordingly, I ran my bark on more 
at one of their landing-places, which was a fort of 
nick or little dock, from which afcended a Hoping 
path or road up to the edge of the meadow, where 
their nefls were ; moft of them were deferted, and 
the great thick whitifh egg-lhells lay broken and 
fcattered upon the ground round about them. 
The nefts or hillocks are of the form of an obtufe 
cone, four feet high and four or five feet in dia- 
meter at their bafes ; they are conftrudted with mud, 
grafs, and herbage. At firfl they lay a floor of this 
kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which 
they depofit a layer of eggs, and upon this a ftra- 
tum of mortar, feven or eight inches in thicknefs, 
and then another layer of eggs, and in this manner 
one ftratum upon another, nearly to the top. I be- 
lieve they commonly lay from one to two hundred 
eggs in a neft : thefe are hatched, I fuppofe, by the 
heat of the fun ; and perhaps the vegetable fub- 
ftances mixed with the earth, being acted upon by 
the fun, may caufe a fmall degree of fermentation, 
and fo increafe the heat in thofe hillocks. The 
ground for feveral acres about thefe nefts fhewed evi- 
dent marks of a continual refort of alligators ; the 
grafs was every where beaten down, hardly a blade 
or ftraw was left ftanding ; whereas, all about, at a 
diftance, it was five or fix feet high, and as thick 
as it could grow together. The female, as I ima- 
gine, carefully watches her own neft of eggs until 
they are all hatched ; or perhaps while me is attend- 
ing her own brood, fhe takes under her care and 
protection as many as fhe can get at one time, ei- 
ther 
