The method which the African adopts to kill this formidable creature displays considerable ingenuity and courage. Having wrapped a thick cloth round his arm, and provided himself with a long knife, he proceeds to the known haunt, usually a reedy swamp or river. The moment the Crocodile perceives him it rushes at him with open mouth, but is coolly received by its antagonist, who thrusts his covered arm between its jaws. The teeth cannot pierce through the thick folds of the cloth, so that his arm only gets a smart squeeze, and before the creature can disengage itself, he adroitly cuts its throat.
The Gavials have very long, slender snouts, and their hind feet are webbed to the ends of the toes. These animals grow to the length of twenty-five feet, and when large are as dangerous and destructive as the Nilotic Crocodile. They are found abundantly in the Ganges, and in the fresh waters of most parts of India and its islands.
A short time before M. Navarette was at the Manillas, he was told that, as a young woman was washing her feet at one of the rivers, an Alligator seized and carried her off. Her husband, to whom she had been but just married, hearing her screams, threw himself headlong into the water, and, with a dagger in his hand, pursued the robber. He overtook and fought the animal with such success as to recover his wife; but, unfortunately for her brave rescuer, she died before she could be brought to the shore.
THE ALLIGATOR, OR CAYMAN.
(Alligator lucius.)
The habits of the Alligator are much the same as those of the crocodile. The principal mark of distinction is, that the former has its head and part of the neck more smooth than the latter, and the snout is considerably more wide and flat, as well as more rounded at the extremity. The largest of these animals do not usually exceed eighteen feet. Alligators are natives of the warmer parts of America, and are the dread of all living animals. Their voracity is so great that they do not spare even mankind.