THE ALLIGATOR. 



Extraordinar}' instance of its voracity. 



regular supply of food, from the fear in which 

 they are held hy all animals, and the care with 

 which these in general avoid their haunts, they 

 are able, like the crocodile, to sustain a privation 

 of it for a great length of time. When killed 

 and opened, stones and other hard substances 

 are generally found in their stomach. In many 

 that Mr. Catesby examined there was nothing 

 but mucilage and large pieces of wood, some of 

 which weighed seven or eight pounds each : the 

 angles were so worn down that he fancied they 

 must have lain there for several months. Dr. 

 Brickell also saw two alligators killed in North 

 Carolina, which had several sorts of snakes and 

 some pieces of wood in their bellies, and in one 

 of them was found a stone that weighed about 

 four pounds. 



Of the voracity of these animals M. Navaretti 

 in his "Travels" gives the following instance, of 

 which he was informed a short time before he 

 was at the Manillas. While a young woman was 

 washing her feet in one of the rivers, an alligator 

 seized and carried her off. Her husband, to 

 whom she had been but that morning married, 

 hearing her screams, threw himself headlong into 

 the water, and, with a dagger in his hand, pur- 

 sued the monster. He overtook, and fought 

 him with such success as to recover his wife ; 

 but she, unfortunately for her brave rescuer x . was 

 found to be dead. 





