ALLIGATORS. 19 



narrow Indian canoe, kept to hunt these lakes, and taken into them during the 

 freshet, is soon launched ; and the party seated in the bottom is paddled, or poled, 

 to look for water-game. Then, on a sudden, hundreds of alligators are seen 

 dispersed all over the lake ; their head and all the upper part of their body floating 

 like a log, and in many instances so resembling one, that it requires to be accus- 

 tomed to see them to know the distinction. Millions of the large wood-ibis are 

 seen wading through the water, muddling it up, and striking deadly blows with 



MISSISSIPPI ALLIGATOR (^5 nat. size). 



their bills on the fish therein. ... It is then that you see and hear the alligator at 

 his work ; each lake has a spot deeper than the rest, rendered so by these animals 

 who work at it; and always situated at the lower end of the lake." By this 

 means a supply of water is ensured ; and in these so-called alligators' holes the 

 reptiles may be seen congregating in hundreds. " The fish, that are already dying 

 by thousands through the insufferable heat and stench of the water, and the 

 wounds of the different winged enemies constantly in pursuit of them, resort to 

 the alligators' hole to receive refreshment, with a hope of finding security also, and 

 follow down the little current flowing through the connecting sluices ; but no ! for, 



