104 
the breath being venom-laden, that of the 
specimen before us certainly was not so; here 
again it would be no very difficult undertaking 
to select an army of men with whom a com- 
parison in this respect would undoubtedly prove 
complimentary in the ‘“‘ monster.” 
And, finally, it raay be said that unprejudiced 
NATURE'S REALM. 
consideration of the matter as it stands between 
the reptile and his detractors, will not fail to 
convince any one that a great deal of the dis- 
repute with which so much of the testimony is 
weighted should not by any means be attached 
to the lizard. 
THE ALLIGATOR OF FLORIDA. 
By Isaac McLELLan. 
Clad in his iron coat of mail, 
Cuirass and helm and corslet-scale, 
Like harness’d knight in tented field, 
With breast-plate and his brazen shield, 
This monster grim, in escalade, 
Defies the bullet and the blade, 
Like the dark tenant of the Nile, 
The fierce, unwieldy crocodile, 
Proud in impenetrable strength, 
Who, stretched on mud-flat all his length, 
With gaping jaw and lashing tail, 
Encrushes all who may assail. 
Amid thy swamps and stagnant creeks, 
Where air with foul miasmas reeks, 
Oh! Florida, famous for thy flowers, 
Thy green, thy semi-tropic bowers, 
Thy lemon groves, thy orange blooms, 
Magnolias fainting with perfumes, 
Thy natural gardens, brimming o’er 
With flowerets, a delicious store, 
Thy rivulets clear, thy rivers grand, 
That fertilize thy bounteous land, 
Thy mirror’d bays, where swan and goose 
Their winnowing pinions free unloose, 
Where fly the red-head and the teal, 
Dense squadrons of the black-duck wheel ; 
The canvas-back and wood ducks speed 
Across the marsh and yellow reed ; 
There, lurk’d in bay and salty sound, 
The alligators grim abound. 
Each estuary of the shore, 
And where the whirling eddies pour, 
Each dusky pool, each shelly cove, 
Are dangerous where thy numbers rove. 
No mortal and no creature may 
Unmenaced cross the watery way ; 
Against thy jaws and sweeping tail 
No speed, no valor may avail. 
The fishes are thy lawful prize, 
The mangrove snapper, gay with dyes, 
Cavalli and the grouper red, 
And mullet, thy assaultings dread, 
And jewfish and the tarpon great 
Meet in thy jaws a tragic fate. 

