FISHING FOR ALLIGATORS. 



285 



was nearly covered with water, and deprived him of all pos- 

 sibility of escape, by inflicting several deep wounds. Life 

 was not extinct, when the alligator was abandoned to his fate, 

 but it was devoted to inevitable death ; and when we gave 

 the man his promised guerdon, he observed, coolly, that he 

 would gladly exhibit a similar proof of his skill every day. 

 This animal was twenty feet long. 



