slowly and
cautiously approaching--without even rippling the surface of the water--
and then curving its back, hurled its prey by a stroke of its tail into
its wide-extended jaws.

It makes also a loud sound, by clacking its teeth, and lashing its tail
on the water. It has a voice not readily to be distinguished from that
of the animals of the forest. It is similar to a hollow suppressed sigh
bursting forth on a sudden, loud enough to be heard a mile off. First
one gives vent to this fearful sound, then another answers from a
distance; and from up and down the river, and across the current, these
horrible noises are heard, showing that the hideous saurians are in a
lively mood, watching for their suppers. It is supposed that when once
they have tasted human flesh they will always endeavour again to procure
it.

Humboldt mentions another instance, where an Indian, landing on the
banks of a shallow lagoon, was seized by a cayman. With wonderful
presence of mind the Indian searched for a knife, but not finding it, he
pressed his fingers into its eyes. The monster, however, did not let
go, but dragged the unfortunate man down into deep water, and, to the
horror of several spectators, was seen swimming off with the poor fellow
in its jaws, to devour him on a neighbouring island.

Humboldt states that during the inundations of the Orinoco, alligators
have been known to crawl into the streets of Angostura and carry off
human beings.

Schombergh once saw an enormous cayman seize one of a smaller species,
and bear it away--not, however, without a desperate struggle. In a
short time the monsters reappeared, wildly beating the surface with
their tails. Now a huge head rose up, now a tail, indistinctly seen in
the seething whirlpool. At length, however, the larger was beheld
swimming off to a sand-bank, where it immediately began to devour its
prey.

THE IGUANA.

See yonder hideous-faced creature, nearly six feet in length, the size
of many alligators, its head covered with scaly plates, a huge dewlap
depending from its throat, its body and long tail covered with small
imbricated scales, its back garnished with a row of spines, and on its
thigh a number of porous tubercles, while its legs and claws are
wide-spreading.

As it crawls along a bough overhead, the bravest man who had never
before seen it would undoubtedly get out of its way, expecting it to
leap down and seize him. Yet the iguana, ugly as is its coun