INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 47 



The bass is sufficiently plentiful in the Creek, and probably constitutes a 

 considerable part of the food of. the alligator, which literally swarms 

 here. We were more than astonished at the vast numbers of these 

 creatures, which could be seen or heard at almost every point here 

 lazily swimming on the surface, there reclining on an intermatted bank, 

 or again splashing unseen from a bed of lettuce and flag. We observed 

 at one time from the deck of our boat no less than nine of these animals 

 unconcernedly swimming in quest of prey, crossing and recrossing the 

 stream in the most methodical manner, suddenly disappearing on an 

 alarm of danger, but reappearing after a brief interval of complete 

 immersion. During my first ascent of the stream, which probably 

 consumed in the neighborhood of five hours, I must have seen or heard 

 in my immediate proximity between fifty and seventy-five alligators, and 

 not improbably many more. They appear especially plentiful at about 

 the middle of day, when the elevated temperature calls them from their 

 aqueous homes. They delight in the masses of floating vegetation that 

 hang matted together on the shore line, whence they can readily see 

 their prey without discovering their own presence. Their power of 

 perception is very acute, and in probably nine cases out of ten, as far 

 as our own experience was concerned, they observed intruders long 

 before they themselves were detected. In no instance did they manifest 

 a disposition to give battle, even when approached to within short 

 range of the boat ; on more than one occasion I was sufficiently near to 

 have struck them with a medium-sized pole, or even with the paddle, but 

 the reptiles seemed to entertain no disposition to attack, preferring the 

 easy victory bought by a general immersion. At the same time, they do 

 not always appear to shrink from man's presence, as frequently I observed 

 them heading directly for my boat, disappearing only when so close as to 

 cover me with their downward splash. They are exceedingly tenacious 

 of life, and will execute apparently conscious movements sometimes hours 

 after the head will have been battered in by both ball and axe, the method 

 of execution practiced here. In how far these movements are in the 

 nature of reflex action, excited by some extraneous stimuli, it is not 

 always easy to determine, but in many cases they are without doubt 

 strictly coordinated. On one occasion where I was compelled to use one 

 of our dingeys, containing a young alligator supposed to have been dead 

 for a number of hours, for the purpose of collecting a wounded anhinga, 

 I was surprised, on lifting the bird into the boat, to find the alligator 

 suddenly come to life, and make a dashing onslaught on its unfortunate 

 victim. 



The Floridians frequently speak of two varieties of alligator, the 

 red-eyed, which is reported to be the more savage, and the common 

 black-eyed. We observed several individuals of the former, which is also 



