LOUISIANA. 367 



ble fcales, almoft as ftrong as oyfter-lhells, refifting 

 the force of a ball from a muilcet. It is difficult 

 to hurt an alligator any where except in the eye. 

 They are numerous in the red river : they are 

 torpid during the cold weather, and lie in the 

 mud* with their mouths open, into which the 

 fifh enter as into a funnel, and can neither ad- 

 vance nor go back. The Indians then get upon 

 their backs and kill them by finking their heads 

 with hatchets, and this is a kind of diverfion for 

 them. 



Here are iikewife frogs of an extraordinary 

 fize, whofe croaking exceeds the roaring of a 

 bull. On my voyage from Mobile to New Or- 

 leans, I touched at the Horn I (land axid found a 

 fhell fifh there, which the Indians call Naninatele^ 

 which means Sea Spider \ it was petrified. Its 

 outward covering confifled of a more fhining 

 varnifh than the Chinefe \ its eyes were petrified 

 and hard as diamonds. This fheli fiih is of the 



fize 



* This circumftance of the allega tor's being torpid dur- 

 ing winter, is quite new, and very remarkable for natural his- 

 torians. It feems almoft all the clafs of animals called amphi- 

 bia by Dr. Linneeus, when found in cold climates, grow tor- 

 ^id during winter. F. 



