Capture and Death of a large Alligator. 81 



the back, which an Indian, with a heavy piece of wood, ham- 

 mered into him, as he could catch an opportunity. My com- 

 panion, on the other side, now tried to haul him to the shore, 

 by the nets to which he had fastened himself, but had not suf- 

 ficient assistance with him. As I had more force with me, 

 we managed, with the aid of the women and children, to drag 

 his head and part of his body on to the little beach, where the 

 river joined the lake, and giving him the " coup de grace," left 

 him to gasp out the remnant of his life on the sand. I regret 

 to say, that the measurement of the length of this animal was 

 imperfect. It was night when the struggle ended, and our exa- 

 mination of him was made by torch-light. I measured the 

 circumference, as did also my companion, and it was over eleven 

 feet immediately behind the fore-legs. It was thirteen feet at 

 belly, which was distended by the immoderate meal made on 

 the horse. As he was only partly out of the water, I stood 

 with a line at his head, giving the other end to an Indian, with 

 directions to take it to the extremity of the tail. The length 

 so measured was twenty-two feet, but at the time I doubted 

 the good faith of my assistant, from the reluctance he mani- 

 fested to enter the water, and the fears he expressed that the 

 mate of the alligator might be in the vicinity. From the dia- 

 meter of the animal, and the representations of those who exa- 

 mined him afterwards, we believed the length to have been 

 about thirty feet. As we intended to preserve the entire 

 skeleton, with the skin, we were less particular than we other- 

 wise should have been. On opening him, we found, with other 

 parts of the horse, three legs entire, torn off at the haunch 

 and shoulder, which he had swallowed whole, besides a large 

 quantity of stones, some of them of several pounds weight. 



The night, which had become very dark and stormy, prevent- 

 ed us from being minute in our investigation ; and leaving direc- 

 tions to preserve the bones and skin, we took the head with us 

 and returned home. This precaution was induced by the 

 anxiety of the natives to secure the teeth ; and I afterwards 

 found that they attribute to them miraculous powers in the 

 cure or prevention of diseases. 



The head weighed near three hundred pounds ; and so well 

 was it covered with flesh and muscle, that we found balls 



VOL» XXIX* NO, LVII.— JULY 1840, t 



