You know his colour,-- dusky-brown above, and dirty yellowish-white underneath.

You know that he is covered all over with scales, and you see that on his back these scales rise into protuberances like little pyramids, and that a row of them along the upper edge of his tail give it a notched, saw-like appearance.

You notice that the tail is flattened vertically, and not like the tail of the beaver, which is compressed horizontally.

You observe that the legs are short and very muscular--that there are five toes on the fore-feet, slightly webbed or palmated, and four on the hind-feet much longer and much more webbed.

You notice that his head is somewhat like that of a pike, that the nostrils are near the end of the snout, the eyes prominent, and the opening of the ears just behind them.
His eyes have dark pupils, with a lemon-coloured iris; and the pupils are not round, as in the eye of a man, but of an oval shape, something like those of a goat.
"All these things you may observe by looking at an alligator.