60 LORICATA. — CROCODILID^. 



floating or stranded timber, was quite a common 

 occurrence, the smaller on the backs of the larger, 

 groaning and uttering their bellowing noise, like 

 thousands of irritated bulls about to meet in 

 fight; but all so careless of man, that, unless shot 

 at, or positively disturbed, they remained motion- 

 less, suffering boats and canoes to pass within a 

 few yards of them, without noticing them in the 

 least. The shores are yet trampled by them in 

 such a manner, that their large tracks are seen as 

 plentiful as those of sheep in a fold. It was on 

 that river particularly, that thousands of large 

 ones were killed, while the mania of having 

 shoes, boots, or saddle-seats, made of their hides 

 lasted. It had become an article of trade, and 

 many of the squatters and strolling Indians fol- 

 lowed for a time no other business. The dis- 

 covery that their skins are not sufficiently firm 

 and close-grained to resist water and dampness 

 long, put a stop to their general destruction, which 

 had already become very apparent. The leather 

 prepared from these skins was handsome and very 

 pliant, exhibiting all the regular lozenges of the 

 scales, and susceptible of the highest degree of i 

 polish and finishing. When Alligators are fish- 

 ing, the flapping of their tails about the water 

 may be heard at the distance of half a mile ; but 

 to describe this in a more graphic way, suffer me 

 to take you along with me, in one of my hunting 

 excursions, accompanied by friends and negroes. 



*' In the immediate neighbourhood of Bayou- 

 Sarah, on the Mississippi, are extensive shallow 

 lakes and morasses; they are yearly overflowed 

 by the dreadful floods of that river, and supplied 

 with myriads of fishes of many kinds, amongst 



