" This is a
terrible and hideous monster, with which, strange to say, the
naturalists of Europe are not yet acquainted, though it is too well
known to all the inhabitants of the streams and lagoons tributary to the
Red River. It is an enormous turtle or tortoise, with the head and tail
of the alligator, not retractile, as is usual among the different
species of this reptile: the shell is one inch and a half thick, and as
impenetrable as steel. It lies in holes in the bottom of muddy rivers or
in the swampy cane-brakes, and measures often ten feet in length and six
in breadth over the shell, independent of the head and tail, which must
give often to this dreadful monster the length of twenty feet. Such an
unwieldy mass is not, of course, capable of any rapid motion; but in the
swamps I mention they are very numerous, and the unfortunate man or
beast going astray, and leaving for a moment the small patches of solid
ground, formed by the thicker clusters of the canes, must of a necessity
come within the reach of one of these powerful creature's jaws, always
extended and ready for prey.
Cawanas of a large size have never been taken alive, though often, in
draining the lagoons, shells have been found measuring twelve feet in
length. The planters of Upper Western Louisiana have often fished to
procure them for scientific acquaintances, but, although they take
hundreds of the smaller ones, they could never succeed to drag on shore
any of the large ones after they have been hooked, as these monsters
bury their claws, head, and tail so deep in the mud, that no power short
of steam can make them relinquish their hold.
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