418 
lyson’s estate. 
There was so much disparity between the tem- 
perature of the springs we visited, as they welled out 
and jetted up at the foot of great-grown and em- 
bowering Ceiba Cotton-trees, and that of the chill 
morning air (a difference of some dozen or fourteen 
degrees), that the surface of the stream reeked again. 
Folds of vapour rising through the sedges, and curl- 
ing away in thin fleeces of clouds, prepared us to 
hear that the numerous Caymans which inhabit this 
river found its banks a very successful lurking-place 
for prey. We were shown a weir across the water- 
course, just within reach of the sea, which a large 
Cayman a day or two previously had been seen 
deliberately battering to pieces, by laying himself 
broadside against it, and lashing his tail at the 
stakes. The stockade fell slanting, making a sort of 
chevaux-de-frise. The Cayman was unable to get 
over in this position ; so he bethought himself, in his 
new difficulty, of regaining the land, and passing the 
weir by the bank, re-entering the stream, and taking 
the river upward, after all his toilsome mischief.” 
The following is the repetition of a well-known 
and deservedly celebrated exploit : — 
‘‘ Some time in the spring of 29 or 30 (most pro- 
bably in March, 1830), a Cayman from the neigh- 
bouring Lagoons of Lyson’s Estate in St. Thomas’s 
in the East, that used occasionally to poach the ducks 
and ducklings, having free warren about the Water- 
mill, was taken in his prowl, and killed. All sorts of 
suspicion was entertained about the depredator among 
the ducks, till the Crocodile w^as surprised lounging 
in one of the ponds after a night’s plunder. Downie, 
