Big Game at Sea 



not quite eleven feet in length. All that my guide 

 could say, as it lay on the ground, was: " Well, I'll 

 be dogged, boss. I'd sworn that 'gator was over 

 twenty foot long." The moral is, that what the 

 unscientific observer thinks he sees and what he 

 really does see is a very different question. Mr. 

 Ralph Monroe, of South Florida, has told me many 

 interesting incidents regarding the American croco- 

 dile, one of which was that he had repeatedly seen the 

 animal out on the reef, evidently fishing. 



One night in the little public house at Mayport a 

 fellow angler, just in from a successful day with the 

 channel bass, related the following, which bears inter- 

 estingly on the sea-going habit of the American 

 crocodile : 



" When I first went down around Cape Florida 

 and up the rivers, the old Indian I had as a guide 

 told me that he had not only caught l 'gators,' but 

 one variety especially, called the * sharp-nosed 'gator/ 

 that caused no end of trouble and was very cunning 

 and wicked. All the fishermen have their yarns, so I 

 paid little or no attention to him, until one day when, 

 sailing over by a reef in a small dinghy, old Bob 

 reached over and touched me, and pointed to a black 

 object just discernible moving about in shallow water. 

 * Sharp-nosed 'gator,' said the old man. 



"'A 'gator two miles out to sea?' I asked, 

 doubtingly. 



" * Yes, sir,' was the reply; and so it proved. I ran 

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