[18] Mr. R. L. Ditmars, Curator of Reptiles in the New York Zoological Park, in his interesting work, The Reptile Book, writes as follows of the crocodile: “The sight of a child will send a twelve-foot specimen rushing from its basking place for the water, and a man may even bathe in safety in rivers frequented by the species. The dangerous ‘man-eating’ crocodiles inhabit India and Africa.” P. 91. Compare Schomburgk, in Raleigh’s Discovery of Guiana, p. 57. [↑]
[19] If the slaughter of the alligator in the Gulf States continues for a few years longer, at the rate which has prevailed during the past few decades, the reptile will be exterminated. According to the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission, XI, 1891, p. 343, it is estimated that 2,500,000 were killed in Florida between 1880 and 1894. [↑]
[22] The Ceroxylon andicola and the Kunthia montana grow at altitudes of from 6,000 to 9,000 feet, and, according to Humboldt, palms are found in the Paramo de Guanucos, 13,000 feet above sea level. [↑]
[23] Historia Naturalis Palmarum, Tom. I, p. 156, Lipsiæ. 1850. [↑]
[24] The countries here mentioned, especially Palestine, are now comparatively bare of palms. [↑]
[25] According to a legend, this was the first date-palm seen in Spain, and was planted by the calif himself, in front of his palace, as a souvenir of his early home. [↑]
[26] Quesada and his companions made their celebrated voyage from Guatiqui to the mouth of the river, a distance of nearly seven hundred miles, in twelve days. Considering that they had only rudely-constructed brigantines and dugouts, their trip, compared with ours made in a steamboat under the most favorable conditions in but little less than half the time, was truly remarkable. [↑]