of the Old World. 183 



pigs, and my servant brought a quantity of raw 

 mutton to serve as bait. Having made all my ar- 

 rangements, I returned to the spot where I had left 



B and D , couched behind bushes waiting 



for the chance of a shot, and explained my intentions ; 

 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 chewing 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 difficulty 

 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 



