176 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



tentions ; then passing the ropes over the forks of 

 trees, so as to give me additional purchase, I baited 

 my hooks and flung them into the river. The 

 " chucklar" soon caught up my idea, and by chew- 

 ing the end of the pigs' tails he elicited the most 

 melodious music, which soon had the desired effect, 

 and attracted the alligators to that part of the river. 

 I threw several pieces of mutton into the stream, 

 and in a very short time there were upwards of a 

 dozen of these immense brutes splashing about and 

 scrambling with each other for the meat. 



At last one of my floats gave a bob, (it was more 

 than a nibble,) and then disappeared under water. 

 My gang and a number of villagers seized the rope, 

 and with some difficulty we hauled the brute to the 

 bank of the river, when he began rolling about in 

 the sand, trying to disgorge the bait, and knocking 

 about with his tail, so that I began to be afraid he 

 would cut the rope and escape, 



I ran down with my rifle, and with some difiSi- 

 culty slipped a bowline knot over his head, and in 

 a few moments the gang had fastened up his mouth 

 with a roll of strong cord, and doubled his legs over 

 his back, and in this manner he was dragged along 

 in triumph. 



In less than two hours we had caught four more, 

 the largest being a little over eleven feet in length. 

 We afterwards let them loose on the plain, and, 

 mounting our horses, killed them with our boar- 

 spears, which entered the throat behind the shoulders 



