HUNTING THE PANTHER. 129 



shade of India rubber and palm. The manatee we 

 were in search of had been discovered in a decomposed 

 state, so, as it was securely lodged in a bend of the 

 channel, we had left it to the tender mercies of a 

 coroner s jury of vultures, intending to return for it 

 later. Now we had returned, and making our boat fast 

 over the spot where we supposed the ivory lay, we pro 

 ceeded to business. As the only method of getting it 

 was by diving, and the water swarmed with the ugliest 

 alligators ever seen by mortal man, there was no rivalry 

 between Jim and myself in fact, Jim desired to give 

 me precedence ; he was perfectly willing I should take 

 the lead in the way of diving, and developed a new 

 feature in his disposition. Around our camp fire he 

 always manifested a disposition to secure a front seat 

 when the pork and flapjacks came along, but now a 

 change had come over him, and my impetuous Jim 

 seemed inclined to resign the role of leader, and be 

 content with that of follower. But I was not at all 

 desirous of securing glory at his expense, and so he 

 went overboard first and I followed. The water was 

 about neck deep, and rather cold. Our mode of opera 

 tion was to wade about, feeling the mud beneath us with 

 our feet for the ivory. Occasionally we would assume 

 the position of ducks feeding in shallow water, groping 

 about the mud with our hands. With our heads under 

 water we might have reminded a disinterested spectator 

 though there was not another white man in a radius 

 of a dozen miles of the ostrich who thought so long as 

 his head was covered his extremities were secure. But 

 we didn t think so, for we were constantly thinking of 

 our unprotected parts, and we often wondered whether 

 6* 



