220 SIIOOTIXG AT SALT LAKE. 



ing. As the best time to skin an alligator is while he is 

 warm, and some say kicking, I skinned him at once. 

 Cutting a slit down the back of each paw, and running 

 a continuous line from the under jaw to the tail, just 

 below the bony mail,, on each side, I removed the skin 

 easily by pulling from the tail toward the head. 



Observing an alligator on my way back, seemingly 

 two feet longer than the one secured, I determined to 

 capture him. Rowing cautiously along shore, I at length 

 espied him crawling under water toward a narrow 

 though deep creek. Getting between him and the 

 object he was aiming for, I stopped him, and he finally 

 seemed convinced that the best thing he could do was to 

 lie still. I fancied I could discern a sinister gleam in 

 his eye, that boded evil in case we came in contact. 

 Placing my gun across the thwarts, and pushing carefully 

 toward him, I held myself in readiness for attack at any 

 moment. But he seemed to fancy himself so secure witli 

 the slight covering of water over him that the boat 

 almost grazed his side before I had sent the contents of 

 one barrel of my gun into his ear. Contrary to my ex 

 pectations he lay motionless, and instead of shooting the 

 boat out of reach of his tail, as I was prepared to do, I 

 lay alongside, and passed over his head a noose of stout 

 line preparatory to towing him ashore. No sooner did 

 he feel the line tightening about his throat than he con 

 cluded to come to life again, and after a few preliminary 

 kicks and flourishes, proceeded to roll over and over, 

 much to my grief and discomfiture. With strange 

 shortsightedness I had omitted to cast off the line from 

 the bow of the boat, and now that the gator was wind 

 ing it about him with the rapidity of a patent windlass, 

 I suddenly thought of it ; but it was too late. Bracing 



