The weekly Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1872-190?, 1873-07-26
The Crocodile.


(Crocodilus b;porcatus of Cuvier). which
inhabits therivers and estuaries through
out the low countries on the coasts, at
tanning the length of sixteen or eighteen
feet, and which will assail men when
pressed for hunger, and the marsh GRO
codile (Crocodilus palustris), which sell
dom exceeds twelve or thirteen feet,
and lives exclusively in fresh water, fire.
quenting the tanks or reservoirs in the
northern and central provinces, and
combining its attacks to the smaller ami
mails. Both species have been known
to seize dogs when swimming after wild
fowl shot by their masters, and very
frequently the game also disappears be-
fore it can be secured by the sportsman.
In the dry season, when the water
courses begin to fail and the tanks be-
come exhausted, the marsh crocodiles
are sometimes encountered wandering
in search of water in the jungle; but
generally, during the extreme draught,
when unable to procure their ordinary
food owing to the drying up of the
reservoirs, they bury themselves in the
weed, and remain in state of torpor
till released by the return of the rains.
Humboldt in his " Personal Narrative"
relates an occurrence at Calabazo in
Venezuela, where a crocodile emerged
from beneath the mud, to the astonish-
ment of those sleeping above I; and
Tennent tells similar story, narrated
to him by an officer attached to the de-
partment of the surveyor general. This
gentleman, having pitched his tent on
the dried-up bed of tank, had been
disturbed during the night by feeling
movement of the earth below his bed,
from which on the following day GRO
codile emerged, making its appearance
from beneath the mating.
Herodotus records the observations
of the Egyptians, that the crocodiles of
the Nile abstain from food during the
four winter months. When floating
down that river or the Ganges, looking
like inanimate logs, it is no difficult
thing to lodge ball in them, though
from the tough nature of the hide,
the bullet often flies of at tan
gent, and the animal is as uncon-
cerned as if you were amusing yourself
with pea shooter-for this reason few
of them are actually bagged;' but
the moment they are struck in any vital
part. they dive into the muddy depths
of the stream, and are seen no more.
In some countries the flesh of the
crocodile is consumed as an article of
diet, and the French writer Palegroix,
in his work on " SIAM" states that it
may be purchased in the markets and
bazaars of that kingdom.
The names of crocodile and alligator
are applied Unfortunately, though
there is structural difference, the lat
ter term probably being derived from
the word lagarto, used by the Portu-
guese in India, and the Spaniards in
South America when speaking of the
huge reptiles which infest the rivers and
estuaries of both Asia and America.
The species which inhabits the fresh
water is afraid of man, and hastens to
conceal itself on his approach, some
times burying its head in the mud until
its eyes are covered, as though like the
ostrich, it believed it thus remained in
visible to its pursuer. The crocodile
also dives down and buries in the mud
at the bottom of the tanks when closely
pursued. A remarkable instance is
narrated of this habit In 1888, dur
ing the progress of the pearl fishery,
Sir Robert w. Horton, the governor of
Ceylon, employed men to drag for croc-
odiles in pond near Aripo which was
infested with those gigantic creatures.
The pool was about fifty yards in length
by ten or twelve in width, gradually
shoaling to the edge, and not exceeding
four Or five feet in the deepest part AS
the party approached, from twenty to
thirty crocodiles, which had been bask-
ing in the sun, seuttled off to the water.
A net specially weighted so as to sink
its lower edge to the bottom, was then
stretched from bank to bank, and swept
to the farther end of the pond, followed
by line of men with poles to drive the
crocodiles forward. So complete was
the arrangement that it was thought
none of the reptiles could evade the
net, and yet, to the establishment of the
governor and his party, not one was
found entangled in its meshes when it
was drawn to the bank.
Sir E. Tennent mentions remarkable
instance of the vitality of the common
crocodile related to him by gentleman
at Gale. He had caught an unusually
large one on a baited hook, which his
coolies disemboweled, the aperture in the
stomach being left expanded by stick
across it. On returning in the after
noon with a view to secure the head,
they found that the creature had crawled
for some distance, and made its escape
into the water.
The alligators of South American
waters are much more fierce than the
Indian crocodile, though even these
have been known to attack man and
drag him under water. Alligators may
be seen basking in the sun on the sand
banks of the Upper Essequibo and
Orinoco Rivers, or swimming on the
water like logs of wood, with their
backs perhaps covered with mud and
vegetation, which, floating down the
stream, has been arrested by the dorsal
protuberances of the great reptile.
Sometimes brood of young ones may