Adventurous Crocodiles.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 11 December 1890, Page 3

Adventurous Crocodiles.

The denizens of Cocos Is^nda, in the Indian Ocean, were recently ' startled by the appearance of a huge crocodile among them. The monster did a gcod deal of damage before he was placed hors de combat by the terrified islanders, and his carcass was conveyed forthwith to Mr Ross, the " King of the Ocoe," who, in the belief of the natives, "Jinoweth all things." Mr Roi-s was comple ely puzzled, for such a thing as a croco,lile has hitherto been unknown in these islands, and as the nearest land i-s Java, 700 mile s distant, the adventnrons croco' must have had a go d swim of it. Thj cooc'usion arrived at is that the saurian must have voyaged from cither Java or the North Australian c--a*t — likely enough the latter, as there are g odly-sized rivers there, down which the crocodiles often float on logs and heaps of debris, and get carried off to sea The incident lias evoked an i terrsting communication from Mr A . L. Ca'dwell, of the A. S. Corps, Chatham, who was quartered in Unr-h-.docs iv 1885, and who relates that in the beginning of that year tin alii-

{aior over fifteen feet in length went ashore on that islandt A sergeant of Engineers and some sappers sh"t it as it crawled ashore, and it was exhibited for some time in Bridgetown. The nearest point this alligator could have ) cached Barbados, was from the Oirnioco, 300 miles off;' but Mr Caldwell thinks .this impossible, as the set of the ooeaa^u,rieats would have carried it much to the westward of Barbfukes if itg'statfting point had been the mouth '"of the Ormioco. He tlruks it much more probable that the alligator came from the mouth of the Amazon, or from the Essequibo, some hundreds of miles furthar to the east. In connection with this Barbados alligator incident, it may be remembered that Dr Mitchell, of Trinidad, stated at ihe time that he once saw an alligator on a small log attacked by sharks in the Gulf of Paria. Tn I any case, the West Indies for the : present must play second to the : East Indies in the matter of a large i swimmiug saurian, as the 700 miles \ accomplished by the crocodile recently killed on the Cocos establishes a record. — The Colonies a id India. •