The alligators, on the contrary, have broad pike-shaped noses, with teeth very unequal, and one large one on each side of the lower jaw, that, when the mouth shuts, passes--not into a groove as with the crocodile--but, into a hole or socket in the upper jaw.

These are Monsieur Cuvier's distinctions; which he takes a world of pains to point out and prove.

He might, in my opinion, have spared himself the trouble, as there are so few varieties of the animal in existence, that they might have been treated of with greater simplicity as so many species of the genus `crocodile.' "Of the true crocodiles there are five species known.

Four of these are found in the rivers of Africa, while the fifth is an inhabitant of the West Indies and South America.

The gavial is found in Asia-- particularly in the Ganges and other Indian rivers, and is the crocodile of those parts.