114 THB SWAMPS OF THK MISSISSIPPI. 



with me for your inspection, which will enable you to judge of his size 

 compared with the specimen from the Nile, in the museum of this insti- 

 tution. I employed a negro to assist me in hunting up a big specimen, and, 

 if possible, the one which ate up his brother ; for his brother was lost a few 

 months previous, and as Uncle Daiv had his own suspicion of what had 

 become of him, he kept up a constant war upon Alligators ; or, to use his 

 own words, he kept " icorkin' on dem," with the expectation that he might 

 one day alight upon the right one. Daiv was just the man for me, and as 

 we went off together in our peroques early in the morning, I arranged with 

 him that he should return about twelve o'clock to the place where we parted, 

 and by that time the day would be sufficiently warm to enable us to catch 

 them basking in the sun. He hunted me up about the time appointed, and 

 after giving me instructions which course to paddle, we soon lost sight of 

 each other amongst the marshy islands so numerous in the lagoons. 



I observed many tracks which the Alligators had made by mashing down 

 the cane, the breadth of which was a very good guide to the size of the 

 animal. They veiy frequently form a semicircular retreat amongst the reeds, 

 entering by the one end and making their exit by the other; and as they often 

 lay concealed half way round, it is difficult to ascertain which way the head 

 points. Much danger is to be apprehended from the tail, and it is nearly 

 impossible to kill them unless by shooting them through the head ; and the 

 only way to get a chance of doing so is by facing them, which frequently 

 is not very advisable, for both the speed and animation of an Alligator at 

 certain seasons of the year, are not generally understood. During my stay 

 amongst the men, a party of us went off some distance to a dry prairie, 

 (which I called a very marshy one), for the pui-pose of shooting Ducks; in 

 which we were very successful; and in place of burdening ourselves by 

 carrying the Ducks about on our persons, we stored them in one large pile, 

 or heap, in order to remove them at the end of the day, and on going back 

 for that purpose we found them surrounded by Alligators, snoring and 

 quarrelling amongst themselves for the spoil; and as they had eaten up 

 nearly the whole, and mashed up the balance, we discharged our guns into 

 the ci'owd, and sloped as quickly as possible. Had it not been that these 

 animals had their supper provided, the probability is that they would have 

 hunted us some distance, — a circumstance which they have frequently been 

 known to do. One of the men, called Marsico, informed me that he made a 

 narrow escape that very day, by one snatching at him when on his way 

 through the brake ; and it was only at the end of fifty yards that he shook 

 the'enemy off. The speed of the Alligator, during that distance, is quite 

 equal to that of most men ; and I am of opinion that, with better footing, 

 the race would prove in favour of the Alligator. It was a common opinion 

 amongst them, that, at the expiry of fifty yards, a man had little to fear ; 

 but it not unfrequently happened, as one of them remarked, that the running 



