SOUTH AMERICA. 
901 
/WrW 1 
The back of the cayman may be said to be almost third 
impenetrable to a musket ball, but bis sides are not x he back ' 
near so strong, and are easily pierced with an arrow ; dayman 
indeed, were they as strong as the back and the belly, 
there would be no part of the cayman’s body soft 
and elastic enough to admit of expansion after taking 
in a supply of food. 
The cayman has no grinders; his teeth are entirely its teeth, 
made for snatch and swallow ; there are thirty-two 
in each jaw. Perhaps no animal in existence bears 
more decided marks in his countenance of cruelty 
and malice than the cayman. He is the scourge 
and terror of all the large rivers in South America 
near the line. 
One Sunday evening, some years ago, as I was Anecdote, 
walking with Don Felipe de Ynciarte, governor of 
Angustura, on the bank of the Oroonoque, u Stop 
here a minute or two, Don Carlos,” said he to me, 
“ while I recount a sad accident. One line evening 
last year, as the people of Angustura were sauntering 
up and down here, in the Alameda, I was within 
twenty yards of this place, when I saw a large cay¬ 
man rush out of the river, seize a man, and carry 
him down, before any body had it in his power to 
assist him. The screams of the poor fellow were 
terrible as the cayman was running off with him. 
He plunged into the river with his prey; we in¬ 
stantly lost sight of him, and never saw or heard 
him more.” 
I was a day and a half in dissecting our cayman, 
and then we all got ready to return to Demerara. 
