THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 177 



it can be regarded as only a miracle. The 'gators, he told 

 us, fare no better, and hundreds of each are killed every 

 winter, and still there is no perceptible decrease in their 

 number. Many of the latter are wounded who speedily 

 recover. He thinks there is not an alligator on the river 

 five years old but carries twenty to thirty pounds of lead in 

 his carcass, and he notices that it is very difficult for some of 

 them to swim with even their noses above water, on account 

 of the extra ballast they carry. He told us of one old 

 saurian who lives in and around Lake George, who is nearly 

 thirty feet long, whose back is four feet broad, whose head is 

 as large as a flour barrel, and who when he " bellows," wakes 

 all the natives for miles around. He says he frequently takes 

 in a hog, deer, deerhound or other animal as he attempts to 

 swim across the river, and makes a meal off him. 



Under the influence of these stories and other pastimes 

 the time fled rapidly, until at six P.M. we again reached 

 Palatka and tied up for the night. Early the next morning 

 we resumed the voyage. From here we had as a fellow pas- 

 senger the Reverend Dr. Spalding, of Atlanta, Ga., who is 

 an enthusiastic fisherman. He gave us a most humorous 

 account of an experience he had while fishing in Mobile Bay 

 last summer. He and a friend were fishing for sea trout with 

 excellent success but were greatly annoyed by a large fish that 

 kept breaking their hooks. They procured larger hooks and 

 he broke those. They got the largest the tackle dealer had 

 and he broke those with equal facility. Then they went to a 

 blacksmith, and had him make some hooks of quarter-inch 

 steel wire. These were too much for him, but he now got 

 away by cutting the line. Then they put on copper wires 

 for leaders and used a small-sized clothes line for the main 

 line, baiting with a large-sized mallet cut in two. This time 

 the Doctor said he fastened him sure and no mistake. He 

 12 



