258 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



a time, and fell in the boat, their pearl-coloured scales flashing in 

 the torchlight. In some places they are called moth-fish, from this 

 peculiar instinct. In later years the raftsmen on the river availed 

 themselves of this habit, and placing lights on the sides of their 

 rafts collected quantities of fish that readily leaped the low edges 

 of the raft. 



The nights were very dark during a portion of the time we 

 were descending the river, yet as we were in haste to be home, we 

 kept on our way sometimes till late in the evening, making our 

 course by the black line of forest that margined the shore. Some 

 of those nights were exceedingly solemn. The mystery of the 

 darkness, the splash of the leaping fish, the murmur of frogs and 

 newts, the rushing wings of the night-birds, and now and then the 

 heavy bassoon of the alligator, in whose bosom the spring of the 

 year had awakened tender recollections of his mate, all added to 

 the awe and novelty of our voyage. 



Sometimes, too, we could hear the plaintive whine of the 

 panther or the howlings of wolves, that, scenting us from shore, 

 challenged our distant passage that left them no bones for their 

 supper. 



These wolves are funny fellows. You would hear one howl 

 away down the river just audibly above the insect hum. Then an 

 instant's pause, and another answers from the opposite shore, and 

 then one close at hand gives a yelpish whine as though he had 

 been intending to howl, but a bone that he had in his mouth 

 stopped him, until he laid the bone down and hurriedly had his 

 howl out. Most of the wolves on the Gulf coast are black. In 

 the northern part of the continent the grey wolf predominates 

 and the black are rarely seen. 



We pitched a camp one night at dark in a grove of orange trees 

 a little up from the shore with everything to make us comfortable. 

 Opossum, venison, fish, and doves were hanging before the fire ; 

 the night was dry and pleasant, our camp was well located, and we 

 had every anticipation of a cheerful night, until the Doctor, who 

 never could resist the chance of throwing a line, must needs hook 

 a small alligator in the river on his night line. It was all very 

 easy as long as the animal was in deep water — he was a caught 



