212 THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



again commenced my tedious march. I moved as cautiously . 

 as possible and occasionally crawled up to the water's edge 

 and peered cautiously up and down the stream in search of 

 alligators. Presently I saw two lying on a low grassy bank 

 away up the creek, sunning themselves and looking like great 

 black logs. I drew back again and proceeded as quietly as 

 possible to a bend in the creek that would bring me within 

 range of them. They heard me before I reached the point, 

 however, and plunged into the water. I stepped behind a 

 neighboring pine-tree and waited a few minutes for them to 

 come up. I did not have to wait long. One of them arose 

 to the surface a hundred yards below me. I did not molest 

 him, for I thought I could do better. In a few minutes the 

 other put his eyes out of the water near the opposite bank, 

 not more than fifty yards away. I looked through my globe 

 sight, saw his great black eye glisten in the sunlight, and 

 pulled. He doubled up, and his back came out of the water 

 until he formed a great half-circle. Then he went down, and 

 next his head and tail came out approaching each other until 

 they almost met. Then he disappeared again, and at once 

 reappeared, doubled and twisted into an almost indistinguish- 

 able mass. When he unfolded himself this time he remained 

 on top of the water, lying on his back, and then I knew 

 that he was dead. 



He was a very large one, some ten or eleven feet long. I 

 was anxious to get him out and preserve some of his teeth, 

 but, as I had no boat or other means of reaching him, was 

 unable to do so. Another half-hour of hard, tedious crawl- 

 ing took me out of the scrub-oak thicket into the open pine- 

 woods and I sat down on a log near the bank of the creek to 

 rest. Here I saw a scene enacted the like of which I had 

 never witnessed before, though I had read and heard of it 

 since the days of my early childhood. A la^ge fish-hawk, 



