crocodiles and alligators.
their habits—the gavial and the tiger—mode of seizing their prey—their voice—their preference of human flesh—alligator against alligator—wonderful tenacity of life—tenderness of the female cayman for her young—the crocodile of the nile—its longevity—enemies of the crocodile—torpidity of crocodiles during the dry season—their awakening from their lethargy with the first rains—‘tickling a crocodile.’
there was a time, long before man appeared upon the scene, when huge crocodiles swarmed in the rivers of england, and, for aught we know, basked on the very spot where now their grim representatives can hardly be said to adorn the grounds of sydenham palace.
but the day when the ferocious, bone-harnessed saurians lorded it in the european streams has passed, never to return; the diminished warmth of what are now the temperate regions of the globe having long since confined them to the large rivers and lagunes of the torrid zone. the scourge and terror of all that lives in the waters which they frequent, they may with full justice be called the very images of depravity, as perhaps no animals in existence bear in their countenance more decided marks of cruelty and malice. the depressed head, so significant of a low cerebral development; the vast maw, garnished with formidable rows of conical teeth, entirely made for snatch and swallow; the elongated mud-coloured body, with333 its long lizard-like tail, resting on short legs, stamp them with a peculiar frightfulness, and proclaim the baseness of their instincts.
the short-snouted, broad-headed alligators, or caymen, belong to the new world; the gavials, distinguished by their straight, long, and narrow jaw, are exclusively indian; while the oblong-headed crocodiles are not only found in africa and asia, but likewise infest the swamps and rivers of america. all these animals, however, though different in form and name, have everywhere similar habits and manners; so that, in general, what is remarked of the one may be applied to the others.
alligator.
capybara.
formed for an aquatic life they are very active in the water, darting along with great rapidity by means of their strong muscular tail and their webbed hind feet. they sometimes bask in the sunbeams on the banks of the rivers, but oftener float on the surface, where, concealing their head and feet, they appear like the rough trunk of a tree, both in shape and colour, and thus are enabled the more easily to deceive and catch their prey.
in america, many a slow-paced capybara, or water-pig, coming in the dusk of evening to slake its thirst in the lagune, has been suddenly seized by an insidious alligator; and the gangetic gavial is said to make even the tiger his prey. when the latter quits the thick cover of the jungle to drink at the stream, the gavial, concealed under water, steals along the bank, and, suddenly emerging, furiously attacks the tiger, who never declines the combat; and though in the struggle the gavial frequently loses his eyes and receives dreadful wounds on the head, he at length drags his adversary into the water, and there devours him.29
334 in order to observe the manner in which the alligator seizes its prey, richard schomburgk frequently tied a bird or some large fish to a piece of wood, and then turned it adrift upon the stream. scarcely had the cayman perceived his victim than he slowly and cautiously approached, without even rippling the surface of the water, and then curving his back, hurled his prey, by a stroke of his tail, into his wide-extended jaws.
on the american streams, the stillness of the night is often interrupted by the clacking of the cayman’s teeth, and the lashing of his tail upon the waters. the singular and awful sound of his voice can also readily be distinguished from that of all the other beasts of the wilderness. it is like a suppressed sigh, bursting forth all of a sudden, and so loud as to be heard above a mile off. first, one emits this horrible noise; then another answers him; and far and wide the repetition of the sound proclaims that the caymen are awake. when these hideous creatures have once tasted the flesh of man, they are said, like the cannibals of the feejee islands, to prefer it to that of any animal.
during humboldt’s stay at angostura, a monstrous cayman seized an indian by the leg while he was busy pushing his boat ashore in a shallow lagune, and immediately dragged him down into the deeper water. the cries of the unfortunate victim soon attracted a large number of spectators, who witnessed the astonishing courage with which he searched in his pocket for a knife. not finding a weapon, he then seized the reptile by the head, and pressed his fingers into its eyes—a method which saved mungo park’s negro from a similar fate. in this case, however, the monster did not let go his hold, but disappearing under the surface with the indian, came up again with him as soon as he was drowned, and dragged the body to a neighbouring island.
‘one sunday evening,’ says waterton, ‘some years ago, as i was walking with don felipe de yriarte, governor of angostura, on the bank of the orinoco—“stop here a minute or two, don carlos,” said he to me, “while i recount a sad accident. one fine evening, last year, as the people of angostura were sauntering up and down in the alameda, i was within twenty yards of this place, when i saw a large cayman rush out of the river, seize a man, and carry him down, before anybody had it335 in his power to assist him. the screams of the poor fellow were terrible, as the cayman was running off with him. he plunged into the river with his prey; we instantly lost sight of him, and never saw or heard him more.”’
humboldt also relates that, during the inundations of the orinoco, alligators will sometimes make their appearance in the very streets of angostura, where they have been known to attack and drag away a human prey.
even among each other, these ferocious animals frequently engage in deadly conflict. thus, richard schomburgk once saw a prodigiously large cayman seize one of a smaller species (champsa vallifrons) by the middle of the body, so that the head and tail projected on both sides of its muzzle. now both of them disappeared under the surface, so that only the agitated waters of the otherwise calm river announced the death-struggle going on beneath; and then again the monsters reappeared, wildly beating the surface; so that it was hardly possible to distinguish here a tail, or there a monstrous head, in the seething whirlpool. at length, however, the tumult subsided, and the large cayman was seen leisurely swimming to a sand-bank, where he immediately began to feed upon his prey.
the same traveller relates an interesting example of the cayman’s tenacity of life. one of them having been wounded with a strong harpoon, was dragged upon a sand-bank. here the rays of the sun seemed to infuse new life into the monster, for, awakening from his death-like torpidity, he suddenly snapped about him with such rage that schomburgk and his assistants thought it prudent to retreat to a safer distance. seizing a long and mighty pole, the bravest of the indians now went towards the cayman, who awaited the attack with wide-extended jaws, and plunged the stake deep into his maw—a morsel which the brute did not seem to relish. meanwhile two other indians approached him from behind, and kept striking him with thick clubs upon the extremity of the tail. at every blow upon this sensitive part, the monster bounded in the air and extended his frightful jaws, which were each time immediately regaled with a fresh thrust of the pole. after a long and furious battle, the cayman, who measured twelve feet in length, was at last slain. another remarkable instance of the vitality of the common crocodile is mentioned336 by sir e. tennent. a gentleman at galle having caught on a baited hook an unusually large one, it was disembowelled by his coolies, the aperture in the stomach being left expanded by a stick placed across it. on returning, in the afternoon, with a view to secure the head, they found that the creature had crawled for some distance, and made its escape into the water.
we all know the intense hatred which sailors bear to the shark, and with what savage delight they drag one on board, and hack him to pieces with their knives before life is extinct; but the american indian is a no less inveterate enemy of the cayman, and, when occasion offers, lets him feel the full extent of his inventive cruelty. among the javanese, on the contrary, we find the crocodile considered as a sacred animal, on account of his clearing the rivers and lagunes of putrefying substances; and the friendship even seems to be reciprocal, as bennett saw javanese convicts busy working up to their middle in water, quite near the monsters.
like the sea-turtles, the crocodiles generally deposit their eggs, which are about the size of those of a goose, and covered with a calcareous shell, in holes made in the sand, leaving them to be hatched by the warm rays of the tropical sun. in some parts of america, however, they have been observed to resort to a more ingenious method, denoting a degree of provident instinct which could hardly have been expected in a cold-blooded reptile. raising a small hillock on the banks of the river, and hollowing it out in the middle, they collect a quantity of leaves and other vegetable matters, in which they deposit their eggs. these are covered with the leaves, and are hatched by the heat extricated during their putrefaction, along with that of the atmosphere.
callous to every other generous sentiment, the female cayman continues for some time after their birth to watch over her young with great care. one day, as richard schomburgk, accompanied by an indian, was busy fishing on the banks of the essequibo, he suddenly heard in the water a strange noise, resembling the mewing of young cats. with eager curiosity he climbed along the trunk of a tree overhanging the river, about three feet above the water, and saw beneath him a brood of young alligators, about a foot and a half long. on his seizing and lifting one of them out of the water, the mother, a337 creature of prodigious size, suddenly emerged with an appalling roar, making desperate efforts to reach her wriggling and screeching offspring, and increasing in rage every time schomburgk tantalised her by holding it out to her. having been wounded with an arrow, she retired for a few moments, and then again returned with redoubled fury, lashing the waters into foam by the repeated strokes of her tail. schomburgk now cautiously retreated, as in case of a fall into the water below, he would have had but little reason to expect a friendly reception, the monster pertinaciously following him to the bank, but not deeming it advisable to land, as here it seemed to feel its helplessness. the scales of the captured young one were quite soft and pliable, as it was only a few days old, but it already had the peculiar musk-like smell which characterises the full-grown reptile.
the sight of the first crocodile he meets with, lying on a flat sand-bank of the nile, is a great event in the traveller’s life in egypt. with all the eagerness of curiosity he first seizes his telescope to have a look at the monster, and then his gun, to drive, if possible, a bullet through its harnessed skin. but long before the enemy approaches, the wary reptile creeps slowly into the river, and plunging into the water, mocks all further pursuit. if the sportsman wishes to become better acquainted with the leviathan, he must wander farther to the south. the thousands of crocodile mummies piled up in the pits of monfaloot, prove that in ancient times the dreaded reptile must have been common in the land of the pharaohs; at present this can only be affirmed of the sudan, where one may reckon with certainty upon finding a crocodile upon every sand-bank of the two niles. the favourite resorts of the crocodile are quiet places in the rivers, where it can bask undisturbed in the sun; the cataracts it seems are not to its taste. it is no lover of change, for old men affirm that since their childhood they have seen the same crocodile invariably make its appearance upon the same island, nor is there reason to doubt their word, as the reptile attains an extreme old age. a life of a hundred years is exceptional with man, with the crocodile it is probably but a part of its existence. at its birth the animal issues from an egg not bigger than that of a goose; it grows very slowly like all amphibia, and yet reaches the enormous length of twenty338 feet. when bursting its shell it is scarce nine inches long; after a year it attains the double, sometimes the triple length, and then grows slower. on comparing the full-grown with the new-born crocodile, one can hardly conceive how this neat little creature can ever expand to such a size.
in spite of its unwieldy appearance, the crocodile is by no means awkward in its movements. the web uniting the four toes of its hind feet, and its long oar-like tail, enable it to catch fish without difficulty, but also on land it is far from being slow. according to brehm, an excellent observer, it moves in every direction with the greatest ease, and is able to turn in a circle, the diameter of which is about equal to its length—so that running backwards and forwards, so warmly recommended by the inventors of fables, as the best means to escape the reptile, would hardly be of use. fortunately, the crocodile on land never gives occasion to show the fallacy of this method, as it invariably runs away at the approach of man. during his journeys in fassokl, dr. penney disturbed a crocodile which had hidden itself in a heap of dried leaves. the animal fled at the approach of the riders, and ran bellowing in a direct line to the river, which was several miles distant. it was impossible to come up to it with the swiftest dromedaries.
the chief food of the gigantic reptile consists of fishes, but nothing living, which it can reach and master, comes amiss to its voracity. land animals it generally surprises while drinking. slowly it approaches, swimming under the surface of the water; then suddenly darts its head forward, seizes its prey, drags it into the water, and leisurely devours it, though as some believe not before the carcass is in a certain state of putrefaction. its human victims are generally those whom it seizes while wading into the river to fetch water. the dogs in the neighbourhood of the nile hate and fear the crocodile. while a dog born in the interior of the country will approach the stream without any signs of shyness, the others are extremely cautious, drink quickly, having all the time an attentive eye upon the water. their hatred shows itself in their rage at sight of a great lizard.
but the natives also testify on every occasion their but too well-founded fear of the harnessed monster, for in all sudan there is not a village on the banks of the two rivers which has339 not to deplore the loss of more than one of its inhabitants from the insidious attack of the crocodile.
according to the natives, the hideous reptile possesses a true friend in a small bird (hyas ægyptiacus), called by the arabs rhafihr-el-timsach, or the ‘crocodile’s guardian’—a not inappropriate name, though the bird performs the part of a guardian not from any friendly feeling but accidentally. it lives on the islands and flat banks of the nile and its tributaries, and being extremely swift has no reason to fear the crocodile. it runs without the least hesitation over the back of the sleeping monster, feeds on the leeches and water-insects that may have settled there, and seems to consider it as harmless as a log of wood. its habit of uttering a piercing cry at the sight of man betrays his approach to the crocodile, who generally awakes and creeps into the water.
the young of the crocodiles have no less numerous enemies than those of the snakes. many an egg is destroyed in the hot sand by small carnivora, or birds, before it can be hatched; and as soon as the young creep out of the broken shell, and instinctively move to the waters, the herons, cranes and other long-legged wading birds gobble up many of them, so that their span of life is short indeed. in the water they are not only the prey of various sharp-toothed fishes, but even of the males of their own species, while the females do all they can to protect them. even man not only kills the crocodile in self-defence, or for the sake of sport, but for the purpose of regaling upon its flesh. in the siamese markets, crocodiles, large and small, may be seen hanging in the butchers’ stalls; and captain stokes,30 who more than once supped off alligators’ steaks, informs us that the meat is by no means bad.
according to one of those zoological fables which by frequent repetition usurp the authority of facts, the ichneumon or pharaoh’s rat, a small animal closely resembling the weasel tribe, is supposed to be the most dangerous enemy of the full grown crocodile. it is said to creep into the maw of the unwieldy reptile when asleep, to penetrate into its stomach, to tear its heart, and then with its sharp teeth to cut its way out of the dead leviathan’s body. in plain truth the ichneumon340 is a far more dangerous enemy to rats, mice, lizards, snakes and little birds, than to the huge crocodile, and instead of being esteemed for his imaginary service as he is supposed to have been by the ancient egyptians, is detested by the fellah as the active plunderer of his pigeon cots and hen roosts. a similar fable relates that in the rivers of america, a tortoise of the genus cinyxis, after having been swallowed by the alligator, and thanks to its shelly case arriving unharmed in its stomach, eats its way out again with its sharp beak, thus putting the monster to an excruciating death.
i have already mentioned, in the chapter on the llanos, that in many tropical countries the aridity of the dry season produces a similar torpidity in reptile life to that which is caused by the cold of winter in the higher latitudes. in ceylon, when the tanks become exhausted, the marsh-crocodiles are sometimes encountered wandering in search of water in the jungle; but generally, during the extreme drought, they bury themselves in the sand, where they remain in a state of torpor, till released by the recurrence of the rains. sir emerson tennent, whilst riding across the parched bed of a tank, was shown the recess, still bearing the form and impress of the crocodile, out of which the animal had been seen to emerge the day before. a story was also related to him of an officer who, having pitched his tent in a similar position, had been disturbed during the night by feeling a movement of the earth below his bed, from which, on the following day, a crocodile emerged, making its appearance from beneath the matting.
like the rattlesnake, crocodiles seem to possess the power of fascinating their prey, or rather of completely depriving their victims of all presence of mind, by the terror which they inspire. in sumatra, marsden once saw a large crocodile in a river, looking up to an overhanging tree, on which a number of small monkeys were sitting. the poor creatures were so beside themselves for fright, that instead of escaping to the land, which they might easily have done, they hurried towards the extremities of the branches, and at length fell into the water, where the dreadful monster was awaiting them.
crocodiles sometimes indulge in strange wanderings. chamisso mentions one having been drifted to eap, one of the carolines, where it was killed after having devoured a woman;341 and about thirty years ago, the inhabitants of one of the feejee islands were equally astonished and alarmed at seeing a large crocodile emerge from the lagune, and lazily creep on shore. at first they took it for some marine deity; but it soon proved that its visit was not of a beneficent nature, as it seized and devoured nine of them at various intervals. after many unavailing attempts to destroy the monster, it was at length caught with a sling passed over the bough of a large tree, the other end of the rope being held at a distance by fourteen men who lay concealed, while one of the party offered himself as a bait to entice the reptile to run into the snare. captain fitzroy (‘voyage of the beagle’), who relates the fact, supposes that the animal must have been drifted all the way from the east indies—a voyage which, in fact, is not more surprising than to see a turtle land upon the shores of the north sea, or a sperm whale flounder about in the thames.
like many other of the lower animals, the crocodile, when surprised, endeavours to save himself by feigning death. sir emerson tennent relates an amusing anecdote of one that was found sleeping several hundred yards from the water. ‘the terror of the poor wretch was extreme when he awoke and found himself discovered and completely surrounded. he was a hideous creature, and evidently of prodigious strength, had he been in a condition to exert it; but consternation completely paralysed him. he started to his feet, and turned round in a circle, hissing and clacking his bony jaws, with his ugly green eye intently fixed upon us. on being struck, he lay perfectly quiet and apparently dead. presently he looked round cunningly, and made a rush towards the water; but on a second blow he lay again motionless. we tried to rouse him, but without effect; pulled his tail, slapped his back, struck his hard scales, and teased him in every way, but all in vain: nothing would induce him to move, till, accidentally, my son, a boy of twelve years old, tickled him gently under the arm, and in an instant he drew it close to his side, and turned to avoid a repetition of the experiment. again he was touched under the other arm, and the same emotion was exhibited, the great monster twisting about like an infant to avoid being tickled.’
