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The male pipal is everyway larger than the female, and has the skin less tightly drawn round the body. The whole body is covered with pustules, resembling pearls; and the belly, which is of a bright yellow, seems as if it were sewed up from the throat to the vent, a seam being seen to run in that direction. This animal, like the rest of the frog kind, is most probably harmless; though we are told of terrible effects resulting from its powder when calcined. This, however, must certainly be false: no creature whatever when calcined can be poisonous; for the fire burns away whatever may have been dangerous in their composition-all animal substances when calcined being entirely the same.

BOOK II-CHAP. I.

OF LIZARDS IN GENERAL.

There is scarce a naturalist who has treated of lizards but has a particular manner of ranking them in the scale of Animated Nature. Ray, rather struck with the number of their legs than their habits and conformation, has exalted them among quadrupeds; while Linnæus, attentive only to their long, slender forms, has degraded them among serpents. Brisson gives them a distinct class by themselves under the name of "reptiles." Klein gives them a class inferior to beasts, under the name of "naked quadrupeds." Some, in short, from their scaly covering and fondness for the water, have given them to the fishes; while there have not been wanting naturalists who have classed them with insects, as the smaller kinds of this class seem to demand.

It is, indeed, no easy matter to tell to what class in Nature lizards are chiefly allied. They are unjustly raised to the rank of beasts, as they bring forth eggs, dispense with breathing, and are not covered with hair. They cannot be placed among fishes, as the majority of them live upon land: they are excluded from the serpent tribe by their feet, upon which they run with some celerity; and from the insects, by their size for though the newt may be looked upon in this contempti ble light, a crocodile would be a terrible insect indeed. Thus lizards are in some measure excluded from every rank, while they exhibit somewhat of the properties of all-the legs and celerity of the quadrupeds; a facility of creeping through narrow and intricate ways, like the serpent; and a power of living in the water, like fishes: however, though endued with these various powers, they have no real advantages over any other class of Animated Nature for what they gain in aptitude for one element they lose in their fitness for another. Thus, between both they are an awkward, ungainly tribe; neither so alert upon land nor so nimble in the water as the respectable inhabitants of either abode: and, indeed, this holds throughout all Nature, that in proportion as the seeming advantages of inferior animals are multiplied their real ones are abridged, and all their instincts are weakened and lost by the variety of channels into which they are divided.

As lizards thus differ from every other class of animals, they also differ widely from each other. With respect to size, no class of beings has its ranks so opposite. What, for instance, can be more removed than the small cameleon, an inch long, and the alligator of the river Amazons, above twenty-seven feet? To an attentive observer they would appear entirely of different kinds; and Seba wonders however they came to be classed together.

The colour of these animals is very various, as they are found of a hundred different hues-green, blue, red, yellow, spotted, streaked, and marbled. Were colour alone capable of constituting beauty, the lizard would often please, but there is something so repressing in the

animal's figure, that the brilliancy of its scales or the variety of its spots only tend to give an air of more exquisite venom of greater malignity. The figure of these animals is not less various-sometimes swoln in the belly, sometimes pursed up at the throat, sometimes with a rough set of spines on the back, sometimes with teech, at others with none, sometimes venemous, at others harmless, and even philanthropic, sometimes smooth and even, sometimes with a long, slender tail, and often with a shorter blunt one.

But their greatest distinction arises from their manner of bringing forth their young. Firstly, some of them are viviparous. Secondly, some are oviparous; and which may be considered in three distinct ways. Thirdly, some bring forth small spawn, like fishes. The crocodile, the iguana, and all the largest kinds, bring forth eggs, which are hatched by the heat of the sun; the animals that issue from them are complete upon leaving the shell, and their first efforts are to run to seek food in their proper element. The viviparous kinds, in which are all the salamanders, come forth alive from the body of the female, perfect and active, and suffer no succeeding change. But those which are bred in the water, and, as we have reason to think, from spawn, suffer a very considerable change in their form. They are produced with an external skin or covering, that sometimes encloses their feet, and gives them a serpentine appearance. To this false skin fins are added, above and below the tail, that serve the animal for swimming; but when the false skin drops off these drop off also; and then the lizard with its four feet, is completely formed, and forsakes the water

From hence it appears that of this tribe there are three distinct kinds, differently produced, and most probably very different in their formation. But the history of these animals is very obscure; and we are as yet incapable of laying the line that separates them. All we know, as was said before, is, that the great animals of this kind are mostly produced perfect from the egg; the salamanders are generally viviparous; and some of the water lizards imperfectly produced. In all these most unfinished productions of Nature, if I may so call them, the varieties in their structure increases in proportion to their imperfections. A poet would say that Nature grew tired of the nauseous formation, and left accident to finish the rest of her handiwork.

However, the three kinds have many points of similitude; aud in all their varieties of figure, colour, and production, the tribe is easily distinguished and strongly marked. They have all four short legs, the two fore-feet somewhat resembling a man's hand and arm. They have tails almost as thick as the body at the beginning, and that generally run tapering to a point They are all amphibious also-equally capable of living upon land and water, and formed internally in the same manner with a tortoise and other animals that can continue a long time without respiration; in other words, their lungs are not so necessary to continue life and circulation but that their play may be stopped for some considerable time, while the blood performs its circuit round the body by a shorter communication.

These are differences that sufficiently separate lizards from all other animals; but it will be very difficult to fix the limits that distinguish the three kinds from each other. The crocodile tribe and its affinities are sufficiently distinguished from all the rest by their size and fierceness; the salamander tribe is distinguished by their deformity, their frog-like heads, the shortness of their snouts, their swoln belly, and their viviparous production. With regard to the rest, which we may denominate the cameleon or lizard kind, some of which bring forth from the egg and some of which are imperfectly formed from spawn, we must group them under one head, and leave time to unravel the rest of their history.

CHAP. II.

OF THE CROCODILE AND ITS AFFINITIES.

The crocodile is an animal placed at a happy distance from the inhabitants of Europe, and formidable only in those regions where men are scarce, and arts are but little known. In all the cultivated and popular parts of the world the great animals are entirely banished, or rarely seen. The appearance of such raises at once a whole country up in arms to oppose their force; and their lives generally pay the forfeit of their temerity. The crocodile, therefore, that was once so terrible along the banks of the river Nile, is now neither so large nor its numbers so great as formerly. The arts of mankind have through a course of ages powerfully operated to its destruction; and though it is sometimes seen, it appears comparatively timorous and feeble.

To look for this animal in all its natural terrors grown to an enormous size, propagated in surprising numbers, and committing unceasing devastations-we must go to the uninhabited regions of Africa and America, to those immense rivers that roll through extensive and desolate kingdoms, where arts have never penetrated, where force only makes distinction, and the most powerful animals exert their strength with confidence and security. Those that sail up the river Amazons or the river Niger well know how numerous and terrible these animals are in such parts of the world. In both these rivers they are found from eighteen to twenty-seven feet long, and sometimes lying as close to each other as a raft of timber upon one of our streams. There they indolently bask on the surface, no way disturbed at the approach of an enemy, since, from the repeated trials of their strength, they found none that they were not able to subdue.

Of this terrible animal there are two kinds the crocodile, properly so called, and the cayman or alligator. Travellers, however, have rather made the distinction than Nature; for in the general outline and in the nature of these two animals they are entirely the same. It would be speaking more properly to call these animals the crocodiles of the eastern and the western world; for in books of voyages they are so entirely confounded together that there is no knowing whether the Asiatic animal be the crocodile of Asia or the alligator of the western world. The distinctions usually made between the crocodile and alligator are these:-The body of the crocodile is more slender than that of the alligator; its snout runs off tapering from the forehead, like that of a greyhound; while that of the other is indented, like the nose of the lap-dog The crocodile has a much wider swallow, and is of an ash-colour; the alligator is black, varied with white, and is thought not to be so mischievous. All these distinctions, however, are very slight, and can be reckoned little more than minute variations.

This animal. grows to a great length, being sometimes found thirty feet long from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail; its most usual length, however, is eighteen feet. One which was dissected at Siam was of the latter dimensions; and as the description which is given of it, both externally and internally, is the most accurate known of this noted animal, I must beg leave to give it as I find it, though somewhat tedious. It was eighteen feet and a half, French measure, in length; of which the tail was no less than five feet and a half, and the head and neck above two feet and a half. It was four feet nine inches in circumference, where thickest. The fore-legs had the same parts and conformation as the arms of a man, both within and without. The hands, if they may be so called, had five fingers; the two last of which had no nails, and were of a conical figure. The hinder legs, including the thigh and paw, were two feet two inches long; the paws, from the joint to the extremity of the longest claws, were

above nine inches; they were divided into four toes, of which three were armed with large claws, the longest of which was an inch and a half; these toes were united by a membrane, like those of a duck, but much thicker. The head was long, and had a little rising at the top; but the rest was flat, and especially towards the extremity of the jaws. It was covered by a skin, which adhered firmly to the skull and to the jaws. The skull was rough and unequal in several places; and about the middle of the forehead there were two bony crests, about two inches high; the skull between these two crests was proof against a musket-ball; for it only rendered the part a little white that it struck against. The eye was very small in proportion to the rest of the body, and was so placed within its orbit that the outward part when the lid was closed was only an inch long, and the line running parallel to the opening of the jaws. It was covered with a double lid, one within and one without; that within, like the nictitating membrane in birds, was folded in the great corner of the eye, and had a motion towards the tail, but being transparent it covered the eye without hindering the sight. The iris was very large in proportion to the globe of the eye, and was of a yellowish-grey colour. Above the eye the ear was placed, which opened from above downwards, as if it were by a kind of spring, by means of a solid, thick, cartilaginous substance. The nose was placed in the middle of the upper jaw, near an inch from its extremity, and was perfectly round and flat, being near two inches in diameter, of a black, soft, spongy substance, not unlike the nose of a dog. The jaws seemed to shut one within another; and nothing can be more false than that the animal's under-jaw is without motion; it moves like the lower-jaw in all other animals, while the upper is fixed to the skull and absolutely immoveable. The animal had twenty-seven cutting teeth in the upper-jaw and fifteen in the lower, with several void spaces between them; they were thick at the bottom and sharp at the point, being all of different sizes, except ten large hooked ones, six of which were in the lower-jaw and four in the upper. The mouth was fifteen inches in length, and eight and a half in breadth where broadest. The distance of the two jaws, when opened as wide as they could be, was fifteen inches and a half: this is a very wide yawn, and could easily enough take in the body of a man. The colour of the body was of a dark-brown on the upper part, and of a whitish-citron below, with large spots of both colours on the sides. From the shoulders to the extremity of the tail the animal was covered with large scales of a square form, disposed like parallel girdles, and fifty-two in number; but those near the tail were not so thick as the rest. The creature was covered not only with these, but all over with a coat of armour; which, however, was not proof against a musket-ball, contrary to what has been commonly asserted; however, it must be confessed that the attitude in which the animal was placed might contribute to render the skin more penetrable; for probably if the ball had struck obliquely against the shell it would have flown off. Those parts of the girdles underneath the belly were of a whitish colour, and were made up of scales of divers shapes, but not so hard as those on the back.

With respect to the internal parts of the animal, the gullet was large in proportion to the mouth; and a ball of wood as large as one's head readily ran down, and was drawn up again The guts were but short in comparison, being not so long as the animal's body. The tongue, which some have erroneously asserted this animal was without, consisted of a thick, spongy, soft flesh, and was strongly connected to the lower-jaw. The heart was of the size of a calf's, of a bright red colour, the blood passing as well from the veins to the aorta as into the lungs. There was no bladder; but the kidneys sent the urine to be discharged by the anus. There were sixty-two joints in the back-bone, which, though very

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closely united, had sufficient play to enable the animal to bend like a bow to the right and the left; so that what we hear of escaping the creature by turning out of the right line, and of the animal's not being able to wheel readily after its prey, seems to be fabulous. It is most likely the crocodile can turn with ease, for the joints of its back are not stiffer than those of other animals which we know by experience can wheel about very nimbly for their size.

Such is the figure and conformation of this formidable animal that unpeoples countries, and makes the most navigable rivers desert and dangerous. They are seen in some places lying for whole hours, and even days, stretched in the sun, and motionless; so that one not used to them might mistake them for trunks of trees covered with a rough and dry bark; but the mistake would soon be fatal if not prevented; for the torpid animal, at the near approach of any living thing, darts upon it with instant swiftness, and at once drags it down to the bottom. In the times of an inundation they sometimes enter the cottages of the natives, where the dreadful visitant seizes the first animal it meets with. There have been several examples of their taking a man out of a canoe in the sight of his companions, without their being able to lend him any assistance.

The strength of every part of the crocodile is very great; and its arms, both offensive and defensive, irresistible. We have seen, from the shortness of its legs, the amazing strength of the tortoise: but what is the strength of such an animal compared to that of the crocodile, whose legs are very short, and whose size is so superior? The back-bone is jointed in the firmest manner; the muscles of the fore and hinder legs are vigorous and strong and its whole form calculated for force. Its teeth are sharp, numerous, and formidable; its claws are long and tenacious; but its principal instrument of destruction is the tail; with a single blow of this it has often overturned a canoe, and seized upon the poor savage conductor.

Though not so powerful, yet it is very terrible even upon land. The crocodile seldom (except when pressed by hunger, or with a view of depositing its eggs) leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along upon the surface and seize whatever animals come within its reach; but when this method fails it then goes closer to the bank. Disappointed of its fishy prey, it there waits covered up among the sedges, in patient expectation of some land animal that comes to drink-the dog, the bull, the tiger, or man himself. Nothing is to be seen of the insidious destroyer as the animal approaches; nor is its retreat discovered till it be too late for safety. It seizes the victim with a spring, and goes at a bound much faster than so unwieldly an animal could be thought capable of exerting; then having secured the creature with both teeth and claws, it drags it into the water, instantly sinks with it to the bottom, and in this manner quickly drowns it.

Sometimes it happens that the creature the crocodile has thus surprised escapes from its grasp wounded, and makes off from the river-side. In such a case the tyrant pursues with all its force, and often seizes it a second time; for, though seemingly heavy, the crocodile runs with great celerity. In this manner it is some times seen above half a mile from the bank, in pursuit of an animal wounded beyond the power of escaping, and then dragging it back to the river-side, where it feasts in security.

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, which plunges with his fierce antagonist into the river. There they continue to struggle for some time, till at last the tiger is drowned

In this manner the crocodile seizes and destroys all animals, and is equally dreaded by all, There is no animal but man alone that can combat it with success. We are assured by Labat that a Negro, with no other weapons than a knife in his right hand and his left 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; but sticking in its 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.

To us who live at a distance from the rapacity of these animals, these stories appear strange, and yet most probably are true. From not having seen anything so formidable or bold in the circle of our own experience, we are not to determine upon the wonderful transactions in distant climates. It is probable that these, and a number of more dreadful encounters, happen every day among those forests and in those rivers where the most formidable animals are known to reside-where the elephant and the rhinoceros, the tiger and the hippopotamos, the shark and the crocodile, have frequent opportunities of meeting, and every day of renewing their engagements. Whatever be the truth of these accounts, certain it is that crocodiles are taken by the Siamese in great abundance. The natives of that empire seem particularly fond of the capture of all the great animals with which their country abounds. We have already seen their success in taking and taming the elephant; nor are they less powerful in exerting their dominion over the crocodile. The manner of taking it in Siam is by throwing three or four strong nets across a river, at proper distances from each other: so that if the animal breaks through the first it may be caught by one of the rest. When it is first taken it employs the tail, which is the grand instrument of strength, with great force; but after many unsuccessful struggles the animal's strength is at last exhausted. Then the natives approach their prisoner in boats, and pierce him with their weapons in the most tender parts till he is weakened with the loss of blood. When he has done stirring they begin by tying up his mouth, and, with the same cord, they fasten his head to the tail, which last they bend back like a bow. However, they are not yet perfectly secure from his fury; but for their greater safety they tie his forefeet, as well as those behind, to the top of his back. These precautions are not useless; for if they were to omit them the crocodile would soon recover strength enough to do a great deal of mischief.

The crocodile, thus brought into subjection or bred up young, is used to divert and entertain the great men of the East, It is often managed like a horse; a curb is put into its mouth, and the rider directs it as he thinks proper. Thongh awkwardly formed, it does not fail to proceed with some degree of swiftness; and it is thought to move as fast as some of the most unwieldy of our animals-the hog or the cow. Some, indeed, assert that no animal could escape it but for its difficulty in turning; but to this resource we could wish none would trust who are so unhappy as to find themselves in danger.

Along the rivers of Africa this animal is sometimes taken in the same manner as the shark. Several Europeans go together in a large boat, and throw out a piece of beef upon a hook and strong-fortified line, which the crocodile seizing and swallowing, is drawn along, floundering and struggling until its strength is

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