By Arthur de C. Sowerby, The other day a certain amount of sensation was caused in Shanghai by the capture of an unusvally large specimen of the Yangtze alligator in the river off the Bund. Though such animals have from time to time made their appearance in these waters, it seems to come as a great surprise to many people to learn that there are alligators in this part of the world, and one frequently hears doubts expressed as to the veracity of those who lay claim to having seen one of these ugly reptiles in the neighbourhood.
The fact remains, however, that there is a well-known representative of the family Crucodilida—to which all crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gharials belong—to be found in the rivers and marshes of Central jand South China, and its scientific name is Alligator sinensis. "Ulus fact is interesting enough in itself, but the presence of an alligator in Chinese waters has a geological significance of no small importance, for the simple reason that the only other species of alligator in the world to-day occurs in the Mississippi River basin.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.