“This crocodile is particularly noticeable for its fierceness.  I have met with it but once.  Three of us were crossing the country which lies between Lake Harney and Indian River, on foot, when we came to a dense swamp.  As we were passing through it we discovered a huge reptile, which resembled an alligator, lying in a stream just to the right of our path.  He was apparently asleep.  We approached cautiously within ten rods of him, and fired two rifle-shots in quick succession.  The balls took effect in front of his fore-leg, and striking within two inches of each other, passed entirely through his body.  As soon as he felt the wounds he struggled violently, twisting and writhing, but finally became quiet.

“We waded in, and approached him as he lay upon a bed of green aquatic plants with his head towards us.  It was resting on the mud, and one of the party was about to place his foot upon it, when a lively look in the animal’s eyes deterred him.  Stooping down, he picked up a floating branch, and lightly threw it in the reptile’s face.  The result was somewhat surprising.  The huge jaws opened instantly, and the formidable tail came round, sweeping the branch into his mouth, where it was crushed and ground to atoms by the rows of sharp teeth.  His eyes flashed fire, and he rapidly glided forward.  Never did magician of Arabian tale conjure a fiercer-looking demon by wave of his wand than had been raised to life by the motion of a branch.  For a moment we were too astonished to move.

“The huge monster seemed bent on revenge, and in another instant would be upon us.  We then saw our danger, and quicker than a flash of light, thought and action came.  The next moment the gigantic saurian was made to struggle on his back with a bullet in his brain.  It had entered his right eye, and had been aimed so nicely as not to cut the lids.

“To make sure of him this time, we severed his jugular vein.  While performing this not very delicate operation, he thrust out two singular-looking glands from slits in his throat.  They were round, resembling a sea-urchin, being covered with minute projections, and were about the size of a nutmeg, giving out a strong, musky odor.  We then took his dimensions, and found he was over ten feet in length, while his body was larger round than a flour-barrel.  The immense jaws were three feet long, and when stretched open would readily take in the body of a man.  They were armed with rows of sharp, white teeth.  The tusks of the lower one, when it was closed, projected out through two holes in the upper, which fact proved to us that it was not a common alligator, but a true crocodile (C. acutus).”

If Mr. Maynard had been at that time aware of the value of the prize he had captured, the market-price of which was some four or five hundred dollars, he would not have abandoned his crocodile.  He afterwards sent for its head, but could not obtain it.  This reptile will probably be found more numerous about the headwaters of the Miami River than further north.  It sometimes attains a length of seventeen feet.  Since Mr. Maynard shot his crocodile, others from the north have searched for the C. acutus, and one naturalist from Rochester, New York, captured a specimen, and attempted to make a new species of it by giving it the specific name of FLORIDANAS, in place of the older one of C. acutus.