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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The Animals
Sent To Us From Batabano Had The Snout Nearly As Sharp As The
Crocodiles Of The Orinoco And The Magdalena (Crocodilus Acutus, Cuv.);
Their Colour Was Dark-Green On The Back, And White Below The Belly,
With Yellow Spots On The Flanks.
I counted, as in all the real
crocodiles, thirty-eight teeth in the upper jaw, and thirty in the
lower; in the former, the tenth and ninth; and in the latter, the
first and fourth, were the largest.
In the description made by M.
Bonpland and myself on the spot, we have expressly marked that the
lower fourth tooth rises over the upper jaw. The posterior extremities
were palmated. These crocodiles of Batabano appeared to us to be
specifically identical with the Crocodilus acutus. It is true that the
accounts we heard of their habits did not quite agree with what we had
ourselves observed on the Orinoco; but carnivorous reptiles of the
same species are milder and more timid, or fiercer and more
courageous, in the same river, according to the nature of the
localities. The animal called the cayman, at Batabano, died on the
way, and was not brought to us, so that we could make no comparison of
the two species.* (* The four bags filled with musk (bolzas del
almizcle) are, in the crocodile of Batabano, exactly in the same
position as in that of the Rio Magdalena, beneath the lower jaw and
near the anus. I was much surprised at not perceiving the smell of
musk at the Havannah, three days after the death of the animal, in a
temperature of 30 degrees, while at Mompox, on the banks of the
Magdalena, living crocodiles infected our apartment.
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