408 
VENEZUELA. 
the quays, persons fall a prey to these reptiles, and 
relates the story of an Indian of Margarita, whom, 
when he had gone to anchor his canoe in a cove 
where there were not three feet of water, a very 
fierce Crocodile seized by the leg and carried off, 
and who, though he had the astonishing presence 
of mind to search for a pocket knife, and thrust his 
fingers into the animal’s eyes, was yet so firmly held, 
that the reptile plunged to the bottom, and drowned 
him, — he describes it distinctly as a Crocodile. The 
fact mentioned of the animal plunging to the bottom 
of the river with his victim and swimming up again 
to devour him, is quite in accordance with the re- 
markable organisation of the Crocodile for diving 
and swimming ; and I now suspect that the contra- 
dictions relative to the daring and ferocity, and the 
timidity and wariness of these monsters of the river 
and the lagoon, are the distinctive characters of the 
Crocodile and the Cayman. The protuberances which 
protect the eyes of the Cayman, with the feebler 
natatorial and diving powers of the feet, seem all 
to have reference to the prowling instincts of the 
crawler among morasses, rather than to the dashing 
fierceness of the bold swimmer in rivers and rapids. 
Humboldt says that the intrepid ‘ natives in con- 
tending with the Crocodile observe its manners as the 
torero studies those of the bull ; and quietly calcu- 
late the motions of the enemy, its means of attack 
and the degree of its audacity while the animals of 
the Rio Neveri, and of the little river of Narigual, 
which he mentions as exceedingly infesting the fords, 
and speaks of both as Crocodiles and Caymans, he 
