ALLIGATOR KU.LLNG. 189 ^ 



next followed, nearly all of a pack of fine deer lionnds. 

 It may he easily imagined that the last outrage was not 

 passed over with indifference. The leisure time of every 

 day was devoted to tlieir extermination, until the cold 

 of wiiitor rendered them torpid, and buried them up in 

 the earth. 



The following summer, as is naturally the case, the 

 swamp, from the intense heat, contracted in its dimen- 

 sions ; a number of artificial ditches drained off the 

 water, and left the alligators little else to live in tlian mud, 

 which was about the consistency of good mortar : still 

 the alligators clung with singular tenacity to their na- 

 tive homesteads, as if perfectly conscious that the com- 

 ing fall would bring them raiiL While thus exposed, 

 a general attack was planned and carried into execution, 

 and nearly every alligator was destroyed. It was a fear- 

 ful and disgusting sight to see them rolling about in the 

 thick sediment, striking their immense jaws together in 

 the agony of death. 



Dreadful to relate, the stench of these decaying bo- 

 dies in the hot sun, soon produced an unthought-of evil. 

 Teams of oxen were used in vain to haul them away ; 

 the progress of corruption under the influence of a tro- 

 pical climate made the attempt fruitless. 



On the very edge of the swamp, with nothing ex- 

 posed but the head, lay one huge monster, evidently six- 

 teen or eighteen feet long; he had been wounded in the 

 mel6e, and made incapable of moving, and the heat had 



