VI 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
and correction, which I value beyond those of any body 
else, although I am seriously apprehensive that I am trou- 
blesome; these are the last I shall draw for some time, as 
it consumes every leisure moment I have, leaving nothing 
for friendship or the rural recreations I so much delight 
in.” 
On another occasion the same writer again addresses Mr. 
Bartram: 
“ The receipt of yours, of the 11th inst., (April, 1807,) 
column without straggling' off to the one side or the other; the young 
appeared to be of an equal size, about fifteen inches in length, almost 
black, with pale yellow transverse waved clouds or blotches, much 
like rattlesnakes in colour. I now lost sight of my enemy again. 
Still keeping close along shore, on turning a point or projection of 
the river bank, at once I beheld a great number of hillocks or small 
pyramids, resembling hay-cocks, ranged like an encampment along the 
banks. They stood fifteen or twenty yards distant from the water, on 
a high marsh, about four feet perpendicular above the water. 1 knew 
them to be the nests of the crocodile, having had a description of them 
before; and now expected a furious and general attack, as I saw several 
large crocodiles swimming abreast of these buildings. These nests 
being so great a curiosity to me, I was determined at all events imme- 
diately to land and examine them. Accordingly, I ran my bark on 
shore at one of their landing-places, which was a sort of nick or little 
dock, from which ascended a sloping path or road up to the edge of the 
meadow, where their nests were; most of them were deserted, and 
the great thick whitish egg-shells lay broken and scattered upon the 
ground round about them. 
The nests or hillocks are of the form of an obtuse cone, four feet 
high and four or five feet in diameter at their bases; they are con- 
structed with mud, grass, and herbage. At first they lay a floor of 
this kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they depo- 
sit a layer of eggs, and upon this a stratum of mortar, seven or eight 
inches in thickness, and then another layer of eggs, and in this man- 
ner one stratum upon another, nearly to the top. I believe they 
commonly lay from one to two hundred eggs in a nest: these are 
hatched, 1 suppose, by the heat of the sun; and perhaps the vegeta- 
ble substances mixed with the earth, being acted upon by the sun, 
may cause a small degree of fermentation, and so increase the heat in 
those hillocks. The ground for several acres about these nests show- 
ed evident marks of a continual resort of alligators; the grass was 
every where beaten down, hardly a blade or straw was left standing; 
whereas, all about, at a distance, it was five or six feet high, and as 
thick as it could grow together. The female, as I imagine, carefully 
watches her own nest of eggs until they are all hatched; or perhaps 
while she is attending her own brood, she takes under her care and 
protection as many as she can get at one time, either from her own 
particular nest or others; but certain it is, that the young are not left 
to shift for themselves; for I have had frequent opportunities of see- 
ing the female alligator leading about the shores her train of young 
ones, just as a hen does her brood of chickens; and she is equally as- 
siduous and courageous in defending the young, which are under her 
care, and providing for their subsistence; and when she is basking 
upon the warm banks, with her brood around her, you may hear the 
young ones continually whining and barking, like young puppies. 1 
believe but few of a brood live to the years of full growth and mag- 
nitude, as the old feed on the young as long as they can make prey 
of them. 
in which you approve of my intended publication of Ame- 
rican Ornithology, gave me much satisfaction; and your 
promise of befriending me in the arduous attempt com- 
mands my unfeigned gratitude. From the opportunities 
I have lately had of examining into the works of Ameri- 
cans who have treated of this part of our natural history, I 
am satisfied that none of them have bestowed such minute 
attention on the subject as you yourself have done. In- 
deed, they have done little more than copied your no- 
The alligator, when full grown, is a very large and terrible crea- 
ture, and of prodigious strength, activity, and swiftness in the water. 
1 have seen them twenty feet in length, and some are supposed to be 
twenty-two or twenty-three feet. Their body is as large as that of a 
horse; their shape exactly resembles that of a lizard, except their tail, 
which is flat or cuneiform, being compressed on each side, and gradu- 
ally diminishing from the abdomen to the extremity, which, with the 
whole body, is covered with horny plates or squamma:, impenetrable 
when on the body of the live animal, even to a rifle-ball, except about 
their head and just behind their fore legs or arms, where, it is said, 
they are only vulnerable. The head of a full-grown one is about 
three feet, and the mouth opens nearly the same length; their 
eyes are small in proportion, and seem sunk deep in the head, by 
means of the prominency of the brows; the nostrils are large, inflated 
and prominent on the top, so that the head in the water resembles, at 
a distance, a great chunk of wood floating about. Only the upper 
jaw moves, which they raise almost perpendicular, so as to form a 
right angle with the lower one. In the fore-part of the upper jaw, 
on each side, just under the nostrils, are two very large, thick, strong 
teeth or tusks, not very sharp, but rather the shape of a cone: these 
are as white as the finest polished ivory, and are not covered by any 
skin or lips, and always in sight, which gives the creature a frightful 
appearance: in the lower jaw are holes opposite to these teeth, to re- 
ceive them: when they clap their jaws together it causes a surprising 
noise, like that which is made by forcing a heavy plank with violence 
upon the ground, and may be heard at a great distance. 
But what is yet more surprising to a stranger, is the incredible loud 
and terrifying roar, which they are capable of making, especially in 
the spring season, their breeding time. It most resembles very heavy 
distant thunder, not only shaking the air and waters, but causing the 
earth to tremble; and when hundreds and thousands are roaring at the 
same time, you can scarcely be persuaded, but that the whole globe is 
violently and dangerously agitated. 
An old champion, who is, perhaps, absolute sovereign of a little lake 
or lagoon, (when fifty less than himself are obliged to content them- 
selves with swelling and roaring in little coves round about,) darts 
forth from the reedy coverts all at once, on the surface of the waters, 
in a right line; at first seemingly as rapid as lightning, but gradually 
more slowly until he arrives at the centre of the lake, when he stops. 
He now swells himself by drawing in wind and water through his 
mouth, which causes a loud sonorous rattling in the throat for near a 
minute, but it is immediately forced out again through his mouth and 
nostrils, with a loud noise, brandishing his tail in the air, and the va- 
pour ascending from his nostrils like smoke. At ether times, when 
swollen to an extent ready to burst, his head and tail lifted up, he 
spins or twirls round on the surface of the water. He acts his part 
like an Indian chief when rehearsing his feats of war; and then retir- 
ing, the exhibition is continued by others who dare to step forth, and 
strive to excel each other, to gain the attention of the favourite female. 
