8S Travels and Adventures 



always on a sand-bank considerably elevated above 

 the river, to prevent them being washed away with 

 the floods. The months of February and March is 

 the time when the alligators deposit their eggs, and 

 it is extremely dangerous to go near the female 

 when so doincr • the hu^e animal, disturbed on the 

 nest, first gives warning of hostile intentions by 

 uttering a loud, hissing sound, like a snake, and by 

 puffing out the neck and opening her monstrous jaws. 

 The intruder who, after these warnings, disregards 

 them, must be a ^ood shot and armed with a 

 good weapon, or otherwise very careless of his 

 life. Although the natives are careful not to expose 

 themselves too much in the water of the river, many 

 people are annually killed by alligators. If a fisher- 

 man advances too far into the water, or some unfor- 

 tunate Indian upsets his canoe, he very often falls 

 an easy prey to the lurking monsters which lie at 

 the bottom of the river in perfect shoals, watching 

 ior large fish or whatever living being may stray 

 within reach, and once between those terrible teeth 

 all hope must be abandoned, for I have never heard 

 of a single escape. The armour on the back of the 

 alligator is made of a quantity of stout bone plates 

 under the skin; these are very difficult to penetrate; 

 but the vulnerable parts are the eye and behind the 

 shoulder — a ball well planted in either situation is 



