AN ALLIGATOR BATTUE. 307 



the alligator dived from the bows, seeming very much 

 pleased at being allowed to make his escape. 



During a stay at the town of Columbia on the Brazos 

 river, I walked on a hot October day (in Texas, October 

 is rather a hot month) to some lakes about six miles 

 from the town, in pursuit of wild fowl. After some 

 sport, I came across an alligator, which was lying asleep 

 on a sand-bank, between twenty and thirty yards from 

 the edge of the lake. The brute was ten or eleven feet 

 in lenofth, and I determined to have some fun with 

 him. First of all, I disturbed his quiet nap by giving 

 him a gentle tap on the nose with a cedar branch as 

 thick as my wrist. Not much liking such treatment, 

 he opened his jaws and treated me to a loud hiss, 

 afterwards closing his mouth with a noise resembling 

 the snap of a large steel trap. A second time I touched 

 him on the nose, and, when his huge mouth opened, 

 thrust my long pole into the aperture. In a moment 

 he smashed the stout branch into chips no bigger than 

 lucifer matches, and then gave another and louder hiss. 

 He looked rather dangerous, and it struck me that if he 

 were to charge me on his way to the lake, as he seemed 

 inclined to do, I might get an ugly blow from his tail ; 

 so I poured the contents of one barrel of my gun into 

 his head, and left him dead on the sand. 



The followino: account of an allio^ator battue on a 

 large scale may have some interest for the reader : — 



' Some years ago, a gentleman in the southern part 



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