ALL1GA TORS. 
19 
narrow Indian canoe, kept to hunt these lakes, and taken into them during the 
freshet, is soon launched; and the party seated in the bottom is paddled, or poled, 
to look for water-game. Then, on a sudden, hundreds of alligators are seen 
dispersed all over the lake; their head and all the upper part of their body floating 
like a log, and in many instances so resembling one, that it requires to be accus¬ 
tomed to see them to know the distinction. Millions of the large wood-ibis are 
seen wading through the water, muddling it up, and striking deadly blows with 
Mississippi alligator (Jj nat. size). 
their bills on the fish therein. ... It is then that you see and hear the alligator at 
his work; each lake has a spot deeper than the rest, rendered so by these animals 
who work at it; and always situated at the lower end of the lake.” By this 
means a supply of water is ensured; and in these so-called alligators’ holes the 
reptiles may be seen congregating in hundreds. “ The fish, that are already dying 
by thousands through the insufferable heat and stench of the water, and the 
wounds of the different winged enemies constantly in pursuit of them, resort to 
the alligators’ hole to receive refreshment, with a hope of finding security also, and 
follow down the little current flowing through the connecting sluices; but no! for. 
