Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I Have Since
Found That Dampier Also Remarked An Absence Of Smell In The Crocodile
Of Cuba Where The Caymans
Spread a very strong smell of musk.) I have
no doubt that the crocodile with a sharp snout, and the
Alligator or
cayman with a snout like a pike,* (* Crocodilus acutus of San Domingo.
Alligator lucius of Florida and the Mississippi.) inhabit together,
but in distinct bands, the marshy coast between Xagua, the Surgidero
of Batabano, and the island of Pinos. In that island Dampier was
struck with the great difference between the caymans and the American
crocodiles. After having described, though not always with perfect
correctness, several of the characteristics which distinguish
crocodiles from caymans, he traces the geographical distribution of
those enormous saurians. "In the bay of Campeachy," he says, "I saw
only caymans or alligators; at the island of Great Cayman, there are
crocodiles and no alligators; at the island of Pinos, and in the
innumerable creeks of the coast of Cuba, there are both crocodiles and
caymans."* (* Dampier's Voyages and Descriptions, 1599.) To these
valuable observations of Dampier I may add that the real crocodile
(Crocodilus acutus) is found in the West India Islands nearest the
mainland, for instance, at the island of Trinidad; at Marguerita; and
also, probably, at Curacao, notwithstanding the want of fresh water.
It is observed, further south, in the Neveri, the Rio Magdalena, the
Apure and the Orinoco, as far as the confluence of the Cassiquiare
with the Rio Negro (latitude 2 degrees 2 minutes), consequently more
than four hundred leagues from Batabano.
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