apparent 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 continuallyoppressed 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 weapon 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 this sticking in his throat, the Negro has time to give it several stabs under the throat; and the water also getting in at the mouth, which is held involuntarily 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,

struck the Negro so violently on the legs with his tail as to knock him down; but without quitting his hold, he rose instantly and slipped a cord over the muzzle of the Crocodile, while one of his companions secured the tail. Mr. Adanson then mounted on his back to hold him down, while the Negro drew out the knife from the wound and dispatclred-him. Except when thus attacked, they seldom molest man. In the neighbourhood of Thebes, the small boat, in which M. Sonnini sailed up the river, was often surrounded by Crocodiles on a level with the surface. They observed the boat pass by them, but with apparent indifference, discovering neither fear nor any cruel intention at its approach.

The French soldiers in Egypt are stated to have set the Crocodiles at defiance. They were not once attacked by them, nor did they ever meet with a Crocodile, at a distance from the river. It is probable that these animals find, in the Nile itself, a sufficient quantity of food, which is not difficult to be procured, and which, as in all other cold blooded animals, they digest very slowly.

The young of the Crocodile are produced from eggs deposited in the sand, and hatched by the heat of the sun, near the bank of some river or lake. The female is said to be extremely cautious in depositing them unobserved. The general number is from eighty to a hundred. They are not larger than a tennis ball, and are

covered with a rough white skin. She fills up the hole carefully before she leaves them. In each of the two succeeding days, she lays as many more, which she hides in the same manner. The eggs are hatched generally in about thirty days. The young Crocodiles are rolled up within the egg, and at the time when they break the shell, scldom exceed six or seven inches in length. They sometimes do this with their head, and sometimes with the scaly roots or studs on the back. When they come forth, they immediately run into the water, where multitudes of them are devoured by various kinds of fish, and even by the larger animals of their own species. It is, however, in the destruction of their eggs, that the most material service to mankind is effected. The ichneumon and the vulture, seem peculiarly appointed by Providence to abridge the enormous fecundity of the Crocodile, and, in this capacity, destroy and devour millions of their eggs.

The vultures are ever found in greatest numbers where the Crocodile is most numerous; and hiding themselves within the thick branches of the trees that shade the banks of the river, they watch the female in silence, and permit her to lay all her eggs without interruption. Then when she has retired, they encourage each other with cries to the spoil; and flocking all together upon the hidden treasure, tear up the eggs, and devour them in a much quicker time than they were deposited. Nor are they less diligent in attending