JULY, 1900. WEST— THE AMERICAN CROCODILE. 
157 
The American Crocodile^ 
By GEO, A. WEST. 
A desire to see the Everglade country of Florida more thor- 
oughly than is possible to ordinary tourists, led to the formation 
of a party to spend a portion of the winter of 1892 there. 
The party consisted of Prof. Carl E. Akeley, W. H. Ells- 
worth, Dr. E. W. Beebe and the writer. It gives me pleasure to 
acknowledge that it would have been impossible to accomplish 
much, had it not been for the cheerful and efficient aid which my 
companions rendered. 
A true crocodile, Crocodiliis Amcricanns, is found only in 
Florida, and from careful investigation, I am convinced inhabits 
not to exceed fifteen square males of country. We found one 
colony of them living in Indian Creek, about six miles north of 
Miami, and others making their homes in two unnamed creeks, 
about half a mile apart, and extending back from Black Water 
Bay, four or five miles to the Everglades. Our native guides, 
who were familiar with every foot of Southern Florida, insisted 
that the crocodile lived in only these two locations and that no 
alligator existed within several miles of the abodes of these rep- 
tiles. We attributed this to the fact that the crocodile is much 
larger, more active and savage than the alligator, and doubtless 
wages a war of extermination against him. 
We found the American crocodile inhabiting nothing but 
brackish water ; not marshy streams of fresh water and mud 
banks, as they are claimed to do by most writers. Their homes 
were in clear water ; their sunning beds on the highest and dryest 
banks they could find, and every particle of earth was invariably 
cleared away, leaving the white, clean coral for a bed. Their 
places of retreat were caves in the coral ; never muddy bottoms 
like those of the alligator. The fact that they do not hibernate 
there may account for their having cleaner habits than is attrib- 
uted to other species of the same genus. 
Their exceeding wildness made it nearly impossible to get 
within rifle shot while in their sunning beds, and despite the fact 
that most writers credit these reptiles with depending principally 
on their sense of hearing and smell, I am convinced that their 
keenness of sight is equal to that of any animal. Observations 
at short range were had by the writer from the branches of a 
convenient tree, located on the bank of Caesar's pool, a clear. 
