CROCODILE. 
Structure, have taken the opposite side, and 
maintained that it wheels about with the utmost 
alertness ; which is, perhaps, equally remote 
from the truth. That it usually runs, or swims, 
in a right line, seems to be the fa6t ; but it ap- 
pears equally true, that it can turn, at pleasure, 
either on land or in the water, though with 
abundantly most celerity in it's favourite ele- 
ment. It preys, however, at land, where it 
pursues animals which it has wounded in the 
water ; and, during inundations, enters cot- 
tages, and attacks all it finds. Tigers, Sec. 
allured by their ardent thirst to the haunts of 
the Crocodile, often maintain terrible confli6ls, 
but seldom escape* Yet Labat asserts, that it 
is by no means uncommon for a negro, with 
only a knife in his right hand, and a cow's hide 
round his left arm, boldly to attack the Croco- 
dile, even in it's own element. By the Siamese 
it is taken alive in nets ; rendered motionless 
with loss of blood ; and afterwards tamed, for 
the diversion of the eastern grandees* Nor is 
Sianj the only place where the Crocodile forms 
an obje6l of savage grandeur; for^atSabi^on the 
Slave Coast, Philips says, there are two pondi 
near the royal palace^ for breeding Crocodiles, 
Just as carp are bred in purppp. 
...... V,. "la 
