THE CONSEQUENCES. 309 



Teams of oxen were used in vain to haul them away ; 

 the progress of corruption, under the influence of a 

 tropical sun, rendered the attempt useless. 



On the very edge of the swamp, with nothing exposed 

 but his head, lay one huge monster, evidently sixteen or 

 eighteen feet in length ; he had been wounded in the 

 melee, and made incapable of moving, and the heat had 

 actually baked the earth around his body as firmly as if 

 he was embedded in cement. It was a cruel and 

 singular exhibition to see so much power and destruc- 

 tiveness so helpless. 



We amused ourselves by throwing various things into 

 his great cavernous mouth, all of which he would grind 

 up between his teeth. Seizing a large oak rail we 

 attempted to run it down his throat, but it was im- 

 possible ; he held it a moment as firmly as if it had 

 been the bow of a ship, then with his jaws he crushed 

 and ground it to fine splinters. 



The old fellow had his revenge; the dead alligators 

 were found more destructive than the living ones, and 

 the plantation for a season had to be abandoned. 



The alligator possesses, along with snakes and some 

 other animals, the power of existing for a considerable 

 space of time without food. This is one of its greatest 

 peculiarities, and would be disbelieved by many, 

 were there not numerous authenticated cases on 

 record. At New Orleans, an alligator was kept in a 

 dry yard for six months, during that time receiving 



