July 5, 2011

La Femme Amphibie

There is something about old illustrations of crocs and gators that I really love. They look so very lizardy - almost like dragons - in our imaginations. They're much bulkier in real life, though every bit as interesting.

French Circus Poster
late 1800s/early 1900s

4 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

Looks like some of them slender-snouted crocs to me. But not quite. Very cool either way.

That Hank said...

Looking at the poster again, I think they were gharials. They're crocodilians that have long snouts (the males have a bulb on the end, like that one at the bottom of the poster), get really huge, and have major webs on their back feet. They live in rivers in India. But most importantly, they don't attack humans - their snouts are for fish, not large mammals. So there you go, that's my guess.

Ms. Moon said...

Whatever, Miss Paula looks up to the task.

That Hank said...

She has a very no nonsense look about her.