"Having resided in the southern part of this Territory for seventeen years, where the mercury often reaches 110° or more in the shade, and handled a number of these 'monsters,' I can say that I never yet knew anybody or anything to have perished from their bite. We have often had two or three of them tied in the door-yard by a hind leg, and the children have freely played around them—picking them up by the nape of the neck and watching them snap off a small bit from the end of a stick when poked at them. We have fed them raw egg and milk; the latter they take with great relish. At one time a small canine came too near the mouth of our alligator (mountain alligator, we call them), when it instantly caught the pup by the under jaw and held on as only it could (they have a powerful jaw), nor would it release its hold until choked near to death, which was done by taking it behind the bony framework of the head, between the thumb and finger, and pressing hard. The pup did considerable howling for half an hour, by which time the jaw was much swollen, remaining so for two or three days, after which it was all right again. By this I could only conclude that the animal was but slightly poisonous. I never knew of a human being having been bitten by one. My sister kept one about the house for several weeks, and fed it from her hands and with a spoon. The specimens have generally been sent (through the Deseret Museum) to colleges and museums in the East.
"The Indians have a great fear that these animals produce at will good or bad weather, and will not molest them. Many times they have come to see them, and told us that we should let them go or they would talk to the storm spirit and send wind and water and fire upon us. An old Indian I once talked with told me of another who was bitten on the hand, and said it swelled up the arm badly, but he recovered. From some reason we never find specimens less than 12 or 14 inches long, I never saw a young one. There is a nice stuffed specimen, 18 inches long, in our museum here."
Sir John Lubbock's specimen, shown in the engraving herewith, for which we are indebted to the London Field, is about 19 inches in length. Its general color is a creamy buff, with dark brown markings. The forepart of the head and muzzle is entirely dark, the upper eyelid being indicated by a light stripe. The entire body is covered with circular warts. It is fed upon eggs, which it eats greedily.
It would be interesting to know whether the northern specimens, if venomous at all, are as fully equipped with poison bags and fangs as Dr. Gunther finds the Mexican specimen to be. Some of our Western or Mexican readers may be able to make comparative tests. Meantime it would be prudent to limit the use of the "monster" as a children's pet.
The foregoing appeared in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of Oct. 7, 1882.
We are now indebted to a correspondent, Mr. Wm. Y. Beach, of the Grand View Mine, Grant County, Southern Arizona, for a fine specimen of this singular reptile, just received alive. The example sent to us is about twenty inches long, and answers very well to the description of the monster and the engraving above given.
In the course of an hour after opening the box in which the reptile had been confined during its eight days' journey by rail, it became very much at home, stretching and crawling about our office floor with much apparent satisfaction.
Our correspondent is located in the mountains, some nine miles distant from the Gila River. He states that the reptile he sends was found in one of the shops pertaining to the mine, which had been left unoccupied for a week or so.
Apropos to the foregoing, we have received the following letter from another correspondent in Arizona:
To the Editor of the Scientific American: