400 
WESTERN HAITI. 
the Phocidcs, Mr. Heneiken conjectured that by 
this instinct they regulated the buoyancy and gravi- 
tation of their bodies with relation to the water.” 
The verdant marshes of the Ester in Western 
Haiti, where I first saw the Cayman, is the feeding 
ground of numerous cattle. Clumps of acacia and 
tufts of bamboos festooned with lianas, and embel- 
lished with blooming nymphaeas floating on the 
waters, contribute to vary the aspect of these swamps. 
Egrets and gallinules inhabit them in numbers, and 
ducks frequent them in vast flocks. Large Caymans 
are to be seen there floating in the clear stream and 
prowling in the thickets ; yet I saw naked herdsmen 
and fishermen navigating the waters in narrow canoes 
from six to nine feet long, and not more than eighteen 
inches or two feet broad. They had tied their cami- 
settes of blue and pink and white check around their 
heads like turbans, having only the tanga or waist- 
cloth round the naked body, that they might wade 
the waters when necessary. Their singularly wild 
appearance, in these mere logs of boats, pushed along 
by poles, — the numerous cattle, and the multi- 
tudinous birds, with the frequent Alligators, in the 
midst of which man, bird, and beast were moving 
about, was altogether one of the strangest wild sights 
I had ever witnessed. 
In the calm long-enduring quality of its nature, 
the Alligator is really a timid animal. With the 
advantage of an impervious armour, impenetrable 
covering of scales, strength of limb, commanding 
shelter of the water, and jaws whose clasp is an 
inextricable hold, it fears to attack an animal it is 
