known to attain the length of twenty-five feet and upwards, and probably like fishes, their size continues to increase during their whole life.

The Crocodile has no lips; so that even when walking or swimming with the utmost tranquil lity, the teeth are bare, and the aspect seems animated by rage. Another circnmstance that contributes to increase the terrific appearance of its countenance, is the fiery glare of the eyes; and these, being situated near each other, have also a malignant aspect.

The armour with which the Crocodile is clad, may be accounted among the most elaborate pieces of Nature's mechanism. In the fullgrown animal it is so strong, as easily to repel a musket ball. On the lower parts it is much thinner and more pliable than on the upper. The whole animal appears as if covered with the most regular, and curious carved work. The colour of the full-grown Crocodile is blackishbrown above, and yellowish-white beneath. The upper parts of the legs and sides are varied with deep yellow, somewhat tinged with green. 'The mouth is of vast width, and furnished with numerous sharp-pointed teeth, thirty or more on each side of the jaws; and these are so disposed, as when the mouth is closed, to fit alternately above and below.

In the water the Crocodile seems to enjoy his whole strength with much greater advantage than on land. In spite of his size, and his ap

parent unwieldiness, he moves about in the water with considerable agility, oftentimes emitting a kind of half-suppressed murmuring noise. Although the great length of his body prevents him from turning suddenly round, he swims forward with astonishing velocity, when about to seize his prey. On land its motions are much more embarrassed, and he is consequently, there, a less dangerous enemy. We are told of an Englishman, who was pursued so quickly by a large Crocodile, which came out of one of the rivers of South America, that unless the Spaniards who were in his company, had cried out to him to quit the straight road, and run in a circle, he must have been caught.

Except when pressed by hunger, or with a view of depositing its eggs, this enormous creature seldom leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along upon the surface, (where it appears like a large piece of floating wood,) and seize whatever animals come within its reach; but, when this method fails, it then goes closer to the bank. There it waits in patient expectation of some land animal that may come to drink; the dog, the bull, the tiger, or man himself when he can take him unawares. Nothing is to be seen on their approach, nor is its retreat discovered till it is too late for safety. It seizes the victim with a spring, and goes at a bound much farther than such an unwieldy animal could be supposed capable of doing. Then having

secured the prey, it drags it into the water, in stantly sinks with it to the bottom, and, in this manner, quickly drowns it. Sometimes it happens that the creature wounded by the Crocodile makes its escape; in which case, the latter pursues and often takes it a second time. He seldom moves far from rivers, except in covert and marshy places; so that, in many parts of the East, it is very dangerous to walk carelessly on the banks of unknown rivers, or among sedgy grounds; and still more so to bathe, without the utmost circumspection, in unfrequented places.

It often happens, in its depredations along the bank, that the Crocodile seizes on a creature as formidable as itself, and meets with a most desperate resistance. We are told of frequent combats between the Crocodile and the tiger. All creatures of the tiger kind, are continually oppressed by a parching thirst that keeps them in the vicinity of great rivers, whither they descend to drink very frequently. It is upon these. Occasions that they are seized by the Crocodile; and they die not unrevenged. The instant they are seized upon, they turn with the greatest agility, and force their claws into the Crocodile's eyes. while he plunges with his fierce antagonist into the river. There they continue to struggle for some time, till at last the tiger is drowned.

It is man alone that can combat it with success, and even he must be prepared for the contest.

We are assured by Labat, that a Negro, with no other weapons than a knife-in his right hand, and his arm wrapped round with a cow hide, ventures boldly to attack this animal in its own element. As soon as he approaches the Crocodile, he presents his left arm, which the animal swallows most greedily; and sticking in his throat, the Negro has time to give it several stabs under the throat; and the water also getting in it at the mouth, which is held invol untarily open, the creature is soon bloated up as big as a tun, and expires.

All the rivers of Guinea are infested with vast shoals of Crocodiles. On hot days, great numbers of them lie basking on the banks of rivers, and as soon as they observe any one approach, they plunge into the water.-Mr. Adanson says, that in the great river Senegal, on the western coast of Africa, he has sometimes seen more than two hundred of them swimming together, with their heads just above water, resembling a great number of trunks of trees floating down the river. He gives the following account of an engagement between a Negro and a Crocodile seven feet long, which the Negro discovered sleeping among some bushes at the foot of a tree, near the banks of a river. When the man was convinced that the Crocodile was asleep, he approached with great caution, and gave him a deep wound with a knife on the side of the neck; the animal, though mortally wounded,