Larguerite Marraccini, age 8, of Staten Island, New York, for her question:

 Are there crocodiles or alligators in the Amazon River?

The mighty Amazon is the world's greatest river. It flows for 3,000 miles more or less along the equator. Most of its path is bordered with tropical jungles, thick and dense. Its banks and its waters teem with a large assortment of creatures in vast numbers. More than 2,000 different fishes swim in the river. One of them is the deadly, blood thirsty piranha. The river also is the home of electric eels and giant catfish, stingrays and hungry sharks. Nearer the sea, these Amazon dwellers are joined by dolphins and giant turtles. And everywhere there are reptiles of the crocodile clan.

The biggest alligator of the New World lives in a branch river of the Amazon. He may grow longer than 20 feet. There are hungry alligators in the Amazon and all its sizable streams. And toothy crocodiles also can be found almost anywhere in and along the great river. Along with the alligators and crocodiles there are also many crocodile type reptiles called caimans. The black caiman of the Amazon may be 15 feet long and is very much like his cousins, the alligators and the crocodiles.

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