Explore "The World of the Great Forest" by Paul B. Du Chaillu on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A big ogata, over seven feet long, was looking one day from the dark opening of his burrow built on a declivity of a hill by a large river, watching for prey. The creature was ugly enough, and looked somewhat like his cousin the crocodile, and he is just as bad if not worse. The ogata is a night animal.
From his dark hole, his hungry eyes peered through the intense darkness; but no prey was in sight. "I have had a hard life lately," he said; "I have been hungry, for prey is scarce, and all the animals of the forest are now afraid of this place, for I have devoured many, and those who have escaped from my powerful jaws have told the others to beware of this neighborhood."