Capture and Death of a large Alligator. 317 



than he quietly turned back and proceeded up the stream. This 

 movement was several times repeated, till, having no rest in the 

 enclosure, he attempted to climb up the bank. On receiving a 

 ball in the body, he uttered a growl like that of an angry dog, 

 and plunging into the water, crossed to the other side, where he 

 was received with a similar salutation, discharged directly into 

 his mouth. Finding himself attacked on every side, he renewed 

 his attempts to ascend ihe banks ; but whatever part of him ap- 

 peared was bored with bullets, and feeling that he was hunted, 

 he forgot his own formidable means of attack, and sought only 

 safety from the troubles which surrounded him. 



A low spot, which separated the river from the lake, a little 

 above the nets, was unguarded, and we feared that he would suc- 

 ceed in escaping over it. It was here necessary to stand firmly 

 against him ; and in several attempts which he made to cross it, 

 we turned him back with spears, bamboos, or whatever first came 

 to hand. He once seemed determined to force his way, and 

 foaming with rage, rushed with open jaws, and gnashing his teeth, 

 with a sound too ominous to be despised, appeared to have his 

 full energies aroused, when his career was stopped by a large 

 bamboo thrust violently into his mouth, which he ground to 

 pieces, and the fingers of the holder were so paralyzed that for 

 some minutes he was incapable of resuming his gun. 



The natives had now become so excited as to forget all prudence, 

 and the women and children of the little hamlet had come down to 

 the shore to share in the general enthusiasm. They crowded to 

 the opening, and were so unmindful of their danger that it was 

 necessary to drive them back with some violence. Had the mon- 

 ster known his own strength, and dared to havensed it, he would 

 have gone over that spot with a force which no human power 

 could have withstood, and would have crushed, or carried with 

 him into the lake, about the whole population of the place. 



It is not strange that personal safety was forgotten in the ex- 

 citement of the scene. The tremendous brute, galled with 

 wounds and repeated defeat, tore his way through the foaming 

 water, glancing from side to side, in the vain attempt to avoid 

 his foes, then rapidly ploughing up the stream he grounded on the 

 shallows, and turned back frantic and bewildered at his circum- 

 scribed position. At length, maddened with suffering, and des- 

 perate from continued persecution, he rushed furiously to the 



