The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-04-20
A Crocodile.

The Lake of Peten, in Central Ameri-
ca, has no outlet to the sea. 1t occupies
the centre of a territorial basin, of which
that of the Great Salt Lake affords us
an example. Its fishes are peculiar, and
among its reedy shores is found new
and distinct species of crocodile, to which
the scientific world has given the name
of " c. Morelet." A graphic account of
this creature is given by the Chevalier
Morelet, i'll his "Travels in Central
America"
"One morning crocodile was brought
to me alive; it was three yards in
length, and had been captured in the
lake. The fishermen had caught it with
hook baited with the heart of bull
lock. l had it fastened, by the line with
which it had been caught, at reasona-
BILE and safe distance from my hammock.
During the day it gave great signs of
irritation, springing forward suddenly
to the full extent of the cord which con-
fined it, then sinking back with its jaws
wide open in state of perfect quiet.
Toward evening administered to him
q strong dose of arsenical soap, and
hoped to find him dead in the morning,
when l proposed to prepare him skill
fully so as to prevent decomposition,
which takes place rapidly under the
tropics. The agonies occasioned by the
poison l had administered redoubled his
fury; writhing in all directions, and
giving out strangely agonizing sounds,
for a long time he prevented US from
sleeping. NORM, however, finally dozed
Oft, and after while succeeded in fol-
lowing his example, but my sleep was
early interrupted by strange, hoarse
noise close to my bed, accompanied by a
suffocating, musky odor. 1 started up
in my hammock, and hastily struck u
match, by the dim and ftful light of
which l discovered that the horrible
reptile had broken from his fastenings
and had taken up position directly
under my hammock.
"Bya sudden and desperate effort, for
1 was still feeble from illness, managed
to Chamber up to the cross-beams of the
house, from which my hammock was
suspended, whence I shouted vigorously
to Morin. As usual, he slept soundly,
and was not little startled on hearing
voice from aloft. During the day 1
had been despondent, and had talked of
death, and he had gone to sleep full of
the gloomiest forebodings. His first
impression on waking therefore, was,
that he heard the call of departed spirit
on its way to the clouds. But I soon
convinced him of my actual existence,
and that l was only temporarily So
journing on high. Reassured, he leaped
up, and seizing hatchet, which was
close at hand, moved resolutely across
the room, and opened the solitary win
dow of our apartment, admitting faint
flush of light, by the aid of which we
ascertained the position of our unhappy
monster. He was entirely motionless,
except when now and then he opened
his bronzed jaws, and gave out cry of
agony. My position was by no means
a comfortable one, and felt greatly re-
heved when, after some difficulty, Norm
succeeded in getting moose around the
neck of the expiring reptile, by means
of which we suspended him to the cross
beam on which 1 was perched. He
struggled but little, for the poison had
nearly done its work, and in an hour he
was dead. carried his skin to Paris,
where it was stuffed, and he now figures
in all his native ugliness in the museum
of that city"