Sept. 13, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
327 
battle array, stood bruin’s foe in the shape of 
an alligator fifteen feet long. He looked as if 
he had just been dipped in the Teche River, and 
had emerged like Achilles from the Styx with 
an invulnerable coat of mail. 
He was standing on tiptoe, his back curved 
upward, and his mouth thrown open, displaying 
in his wide jaws two large tusks and rows of 
teeth. His tail, six feet long, raised from the 
ground, was constantly waving like a boxer’s 
arm, to gather force. His big eyes starting from 
his head glared upon bruin, while he emitted 
a man fight. Men frequently fight when they 
are sober for no purpose, except to ascertain 
which is the better man. We must then believe 
that beasts will do the same, unless we admit 
that the instinct of beasts is superior to the 
boasted reason of man. 
Whether they did fight upon the present 
occasion without cause I cannot say, as I was 
not present when the fight began. A bear and 
a ram have been known to fight, and so did the 
bear and the alligator, while I prudently kept 
in the background, preserving the strictest neu- 
manner, being knocked back just far enough to 
give the ’gator time to recover the swing of his 
tail before he returned. The tail of the alligator 
sounded like a flail against the thick coat of hair 
on bruin’s head and shoulders, but he bore it 
without flinching, still pushing on to come to 
close holds with his scaly foe. 
He made his fourth charge with a degree of 
dexterity, which those who have never seen this 
clumsy looking animal exercising would suppose 
him incapable of. This time he got so close to 
the alligator before his tail struck him that the 
at times hissing cries, and again roaring like a 
bull. 
The combatants were a few paces apart 
when I stole upon them, the first round being 
over. They remained in the attitudes described 
about a minutes, swelling themselevs as large 
as possible, but marking the slightest motions 
of each other with attention - and great caution, 
as if each felt confident he had met his match. 
During this pause I was concealed behind 
a tree watching their maneuvers in silence. I 
could scarcely believe my eyesight. What, 
thought I, can these two beasts have to fight 
about? Some readers may doubt the tale in 
this account, but if it had been a bull fight, no 
one would have doubted it, because everyone 
knows what they are fighting for. 
The same reason will not always apply to 
ONE OF THE PERILS OF THE SEA. 
trality between the belligerents. And now, if the 
reader is satisfied that such a battle as this might 
have taken place in the absence of any known 
cause, I will go on to tell what I saw of it, as 
a witness should. 
Bruin, though evidently baffled, had a firm 
look, which showed he had not lost confidence 
in himself. If the difficulty of the undertaking 
had once deceived him, he was preparing to go 
at it again. Accordingly, letting himself down 
upon all fours, he ran furiously at the alligator. 
The alligator was ready for him, and throwing 
his head and body partly around to avoid the 
onset, met bruin half way with a blow of his 
tail that rolled him back in the shells. 
Old bruin was not to be put off by one hit. 
Three times in rapid succession he rushed at the 
alligator, and was as often repulsed in the same 
blow came with half its usual effect. The alli¬ 
gator was upset by the charge, and before he 
could recover himself, bruin grasped him round 
the body below the fore legs, and holding him 
down on his back, seized one of his legs in his 
mouth. 
The alligator was now in a desperate situa¬ 
tion, notwithstanding his coat of mail, which is 
softer on his belly than his back from which 
“the darted steel in idle shivers flies.” 
As a Kentuckian would say, “he was getting 
used up fast.” Here, if I had dared to speak 
and had supposed he could understand English, 
I should have uttered the encouraging exhorta¬ 
tion of the poet: 
“Now gallant knight, now hold thy own, 
No maiden’s arms are ’round thee thrown.’* 
The alligator attempted in vain to bite. 
