a canoe. The instant it
seizes its prey it sinks with it below the surface, to devour it at its
leisure. It usually feeds on fish, fowl, turtle, or any creature it
finds floating on the surface of the water; but when these fail, it lies
concealed among the sedges on the banks, waiting for any land animal
which may approach to drink. Sometimes it thus retaliates on the
jaguar, and seizing the fierce brute, drags it down below the surface,
where it is soon drowned.

The great alligator usually lays fifty or sixty eggs, rather oblong than
oval, and about the size of those of a goose,--covering them up with
sand, and allowing them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The
mother, however, does not desert her young, but conducts them to the
water, and watches over them till their scales have hardened, and their
limbs have gained sufficient strength to enable them to take care of
themselves.

Waterton relates an anecdote showing the daring ferocity of the creature
when pressed by hunger. It was on the banks of the Orinoco, near the
city of Angostura. The tale was told him by the governor of that place.

"One fine evening, as the people of the city were sauntering up and down
the alamada by the banks of the river, a large cayman rushed out of the
water, seized a man, and carried him down, before any person had it in
his power to assist him. The screams of the poor fellow were terrible
as the cayman was running off with him. The monster plunged into the
river with its prey, and we instantly lost sight of him, and never saw
or heard of him more."

Bates also relates that a native crew, having arrived at Egga, got
drunk, when one of the men, during the greatest heat of the day, while
everybody else was enjoying an afternoon nap, took it into his head,
while in a tipsy state, to go down alone to bathe. He was seen only by
a feeble old man, who was lying in his hammock in the open verandah at
the rear of his house, at the top of the bank. He shouted to the
besotted Indian to beware of an alligator which had of late taken to
frequenting the neighbourhood. Before he could repeat his warning, the
man stumbled, and a pair of gaping jaws, appearing suddenly above the
surface, seized him round the waist, and drew him under the water. A
cry of agony--"Ai Jesus!"--was the last sound made by the wretched
victim. The young men of the village, going in search of the monster,
came up with it when, after a little time, it rose