94 NATURAL HISTORY 
CROCODILE. 
This animal is found in the uninhabited 
regions of Africa and America, where it 
grows to an enormous length, being some- 
times found thirty feet long. They are seen 
in some places, lying for hours, and even 
days, stretched in the sun, and motionless. 
T hus, one unaccustomed to them, might 
mistake them tor trunks of trees, covered 
w'ith a rough and dry bark ; but the mistake 
would soon be fatal, if not prevented; for 
the torpid animal, at the near approach 
of any living tiling, darts upon it with in- 
stant swiftness, and at once drugs it down 
to the bottom of the deep. Its usual method 
is to float upon the surface of the water, and 
to seize whatever comes within its reach. 
Its principal instrument of destruction is the 
tail : with a single blow of this, it has often 
overturned a canoe, and devoured the poor 
savage, its conductor. 
