ALLIGATOR AND TIGER. 79 



river, as though about to swim across, and I was 

 preparing to end his sufferings with a rifle ball, 

 when a monstrous alligator, I should say nearly 

 twenty feet in length, presented itself to view, 

 and making a rush at the tiger, seized him in 

 his jaws. Then ensued the tug of war, for the 

 tiger at once seemed to forget his previous 

 sufferings, and met his antagonist with equal 

 ferocity. The monsters grappled with each 

 other, causing the waters to fly about as though 

 worked by the paddle of a steamer. Down they 

 both went — again they rose, each maintaining 

 his deadly gripe of the other animal. Again 

 they sunk, and then again they rose, but the 

 tiger was now evidently half drowned and 

 gi'eatly weakened by loss of blood, which dyed 

 the surface of the water, added to the effects of 

 the poison. Even too had the tiger been in full 

 strength, I doubt whether he would have been a 

 match for tlie alligator in the element most 

 natural to the latter ; but as it was lie had no 

 chance, for his claws seemed to make no im- 

 pression whatever on tlie mailed carcase of the 

 alligator. The tiger was at length quite 

 powerless, and the alligator partially raised him- 

 self out of the water to take his dying enemy 



