1380 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



COLLECTING WAGON 

 A primitive type of South Carolina conveyance 



jilaces to reach and extending about two miles 

 from the stream were occasional alligators, but 

 we noted few indications of their existence. 

 At that time, the river steamboats carried 

 veritable arsenals in immediate readiness on the 

 tops of their pilot houses. The appearance of 

 an alligator caused a general fusillade. Fisher- 

 men going into the lakes invariably carried guns 

 for the diversion to be found in shooting at 

 every alligator that appeared. These forms of 

 persecution have driven the reptiles to cover, 

 but have not wholly accomplished their exter- 

 mination. 



During the spring of the present year, the 

 writer and Keeper George Palmer so success- 

 fully covered this same area in another collect- 

 ing trip for turtles, lizards and snakes that it 

 resulted in the capture of over five hundred 

 specimens. We expected to find the alligator 

 almost exterminated, and were not surprised to 

 learn that these reptiles are "pretty scarce" 

 along the Savannah River and larger bodies of 

 open water. During a series of trips into the 

 dense cypress swamps, however, the discovery 



was made that alligators are even yet fairly 

 numerous. They had retreated into these pro- 

 tecting swamps, and multiplied in greater num- 

 bers than formerly were seen on the river. 



The accompanying illustrations convey an im- 

 pression of the vast area and inaccessibility of 

 these cypress swamps. Their scener}^ is weird 

 and impressive, and their atmosphere, to human 

 beings, is decidedly unwholesome. They shelter 

 legions of moccasins, and various species of 

 bloodsucking insect pests, some of which bur- 

 row under the skin and cause dangerous sores. 



On entering the swamp, one is immediately 

 impressed by the spectacle of great trees that 

 swell at the base like the neck of a bottle, and 

 sometimes are so boldly corrugated as to ap- 

 pear like a compressed mass of organ pipes. 

 Manj' of these trees are a hundred feet high, 

 and some are much higher, and their foliage is 

 fine and feathery, like that of the northern 

 larch. 



In some areas not a ray of sunlight strikes 

 the ground, although there is a peculiar, and 

 reall}^ bright effect of lighting that is due to 



