ANECDOTES OF CROCODILES.

The Indians told us, that at San Fernando, scarcely a year passes without several persons, particularly women who fetch water from the river, being drowned by these carnivorous reptiles.

They related to us the history of a young girl of Uritucu, who, by singular intrepidity and presence of mind, saved herself from the jaws of a crocodile.

When she felt herself seized, she sought the eyes of the animal, and plunged her fingers into them with such violence, that the pain forced the crocodile to let her go, after having bitten off the lower part of her left arm.

The girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of blood she lost, reached the shore, swimming with the hand that still remained to her.

In those desert countries, where man is ever wrestling with nature, discourse daily turns on the best means that may be employed to escape from a tiger, a boa, or a crocodile; every one prepares himself in some sort for the dangers that may await him.

"I knew," said the young girl of Uritucu coolly, "that the cayman lets go his hold if you push your fingers into his eyes.

Long after my return to Europe, I learned that, in the interior of Africa, the negroes know and practise the same means of defence.

Who does not recollect, with lively interest, Isaac, the guide of the unfortunate Mungo Park, who was seized twice by a crocodile, and twice escaped from the jaws of the monster, having succeeded in thrusting his fingers into the creature's eyes while under water?

The African Isaac and the young Indian girl owed their safety to the same presence of mind, and the same combination of ideas.-- Humboldt's Personal Narrative.