CROCODILE. 
45 
five inches only in length can thus instantaneously 
swallow an insect which bears so large a proportion to 
its whole body, we need not wonder that a crocodile 
of eighteen, twenty, or twenty-five feet long should 
suddenly ingorge a dog or other quadruped. These 
terrific animals are also frequently met with on the 
banks of large rivers, where they wait concealed 
among the sedges till some living creature is un- 
fortunate enough to come within their reach, when 
they instantly rush forward and secure the victim. 
Catesby describes them as frequenting the great 
American rivers, within reach of the tide, where 
they remain concealed among the thick forests of 
mangrove trees that line their slimy banks, and 
greatly resemble the trunk of a fallen tree covered 
with mud. This author likewise assures us that 
they swallow stones and other substances ; and that 
the stomachs of many which he opened contained 
large clumps of wood and pieces of pine-tree coal, 
some of which weighed seven or eight pounds, and 
were worn so smooth that he supposes they must 
have remained there for some months. It is well 
ascertained that the crocodile will endure a long 
fast, and it is when pressed by hunger that he is 
supposed to swallow these substances, in order to 
distend the stomach and abate the cravings of na- 
ture. Their ability to remain a considerable time 
without food was proved by Brown, who in his 
History of Jamaica tells us that he has frequently 
seen them put into ponds, where they have lived 
