ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING IN FLORIDA. 563 



balky, and. a revolver-bullet rolled him over; but as we 

 attempted to take him in, he suddenly darted beneath the 

 boat, and we could hear and feel his teeth splintering the 

 keel. This not being on our programme, we hauled away 

 on the line until his head appeared at the surface, when 

 the Doctor dealt him a heavy blow with an ax. 



We then hauled him into the boat, supposing hiin to be 

 dead. He soon recovered from the blow, and seemed to 

 conclude that he would paddle the canoe himself. At any 

 rate, he did paddle it with his huge tail in a manner that 

 threatened instant destruction to it and to us. We would 

 gladly have got out and walked, had the walking been 

 good, but it was not; and as for swimming, there were so 

 many other 'Gators in sight that we shrunk from the 

 thought of escaping in that way. The old saurian was 

 reaching for me with his yawning jaws, and fanning the 

 Doctor and the boat with his tail in such a terrific fashion 

 that it became necessary for us to act promptly in self- 

 defense. I managed to get hold of the ax again, and this 

 time split our passenger's head wide open. 



Then we resumed our fishing, and soon had another, a 

 small one, not over four feet long, which we took into the 

 boat alive, but again had to do some active hopping to avoid 

 his snaps. After dispatching him with a piece of "light- 

 wood," his infantile appearance relieved us of the desire to 

 kill any more, and we turned homeward, fully persuaded 

 that, owing to its weird surroundings, spearing by firelight 

 is one of the most interesting methods of hunting the Alli- 

 gator. 



Having now tried most of the common ways of approach- 

 ing the 'Gators, still another remained to us, and that was 

 hunting them with a dog. This is not based upon the 

 dog's love of 'Gator-hunting, but upon the 'Gator's love of 



dog-hunting. Now, Doctor A had a large, worthless 



dog, for which I lacked that kind regard that I usually 

 feel for worthy members of his race; for did he not step 

 quietly up behind me, one dark night, and by his sud- 

 den "bow-wow-wow," spoken in close proximity to my 



