Crocodiles from Tatarskoye marsh

First record about "crocodile" belongs to German diplomat and traveler baron Siegmund Freiherr von Herberstein who visited our region. In his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs), he mentioned that Byelorussians kept "some snakes with four short legs and black fat body who are more than three spans (45-60 cm) of length" as home deities.

There really were big lizards, very similar to crocodiles, about 1 meter length in Tatarskoye marsh in Minsk (at the place of modern Palace of Sport). In 1885 last crocodile of Minsk was caught. Its dummy was kept during long time in one of city's non-classical secondary schools.

Translated by Ekaterina Ludvigovna Prokopovich, Odessa