240 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



have never heard of it voluntarily attacking a full- 

 grown person in our region, though tales are told 

 of its catching and eating children. Bartram tells 

 some astonishing stories of the vast numbers, great 

 size, and ferocity of this reptile on the St. John's 

 River. He states that he was repeatedly attacked 

 by alligators and obliged to fight for his life; that 

 they actually endeavored to upset his boat. In 

 a narrow place in the river, he relates, the water 

 was filled almost solid with various kinds of fish, 

 and to prey upon these the alligators assembled 

 in countless numbers. He goes on to say that the 

 latter were so close together that it would have 

 been possible to walk across the stream from shore 

 to shore on their heads. His description of these 

 animals as he saw them on the St. John's is so 

 perfect that I cannot resist the temptation to give 

 it literally. On page 125 of his Travels: "The 

 alligator when full grown is a very large and 

 terrible creature, and of prodigious strength, 

 activity, and swiftness in the water. I have seen 

 them twenty feet in length, and some are supposed 

 to be twenty-two or twenty-three feet. Their body 

 is as large as that of a horse; their shape exactly 

 resembles that of a lizard, except their tail, which 



