272 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



he looks an awkward customer; but if you manage 

 to avoid the tail of the alligator there is little dan- 

 ger. This is his most powerful weapon for attack 

 and defence. It is only the negroes who have any- 

 thing to fear from the alligator's tooth.* No one 

 seems to have explained the reason, but the flesh of 

 the coloured man seems always preferable to the 

 monsters of the deep. The negroes hold them in 

 great aversion, and lay traps of all kinds to catch 

 them. One of these is a kind of grappling made of 

 four branches of trees, with about thirty yards of 

 line attached, furnished with a strong hook and a 

 lump of peccary's meat. When this is arranged and 

 the bait floating on the top of the water, a negro 

 takes an earthenware plate or piece of turtle shell 

 and begins to beat it in cadence with a hammer. 

 As soon as he hears this, the alligator pops his head 

 out of the water, and advances gradually and cau- 

 tiously towards his prey. Little by little, however, 

 he grows bolder, makes a dash at the bait and finds 

 that he is caught. 



All this was very novel and interesting information 

 for me, and before reaching Baton Rouge I had 

 arranged with my new friend, the trapper, to spend 



* It is believed in America that the alligator is only to be dreaded 

 by the white man at the breeding season. The males then engage ia 

 terrific fights, and their audacity with regard to men largely increases. 

 This also is the season when the natural food of the alligator is scarcer 

 than at any other, — a circumstance which, of course, tends to render 

 him more ferocious and ravenous. 



