NOR.TH AMERICA, 
t*S 
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 fhore 
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 nefts were ; moft of them were deferred, and 
the great thick whitife egg-lliells 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 conftruded with mud* 
graft and herbage. At firft they lay a floor of th s 
kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which 
they depofit a layer of eggs, and upon this a ftra- 
turn of mortar, (even or eight inches in thick neft, 
and then another layer of eggs ; and in this manner 
one ftratum upon another, nearly to die top. 1 be- 
lieve they commonly lay from one to two hundred 
eggs in a neft: thefe are hatched, I feppofe, by the 
heat of the fun ; and perhaps the vegetable fob- 
fiances mixed with the earth, being a6led 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 (hewed evident 
marks of a continual refort of alligators ; the graft 
was every where beaten down, hardly a blade or 
ftraw was left (landing ; 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 foe is attend- 
ing her own brood, fhe takes under her care and 
protedion as many as foe can get at one time, ei- 
ther 
