I once met with a curious adventure. Man is rarely attacked by
alligators in Florida, except by the female alligator called upon to
defend her young. Some years ago, in a small steamer chartered for the
purpose, I had gone up a branch of the St. John's beyond Salt Lake until
we could proceed no farther, because the top of the river had become
solid with floating vegetation under which the water flowed. We tied up
for the night, and shortly after were boarded by two men who said
that their camp was near by and that they shot alligators and
plume-birds for a living. One of the men carried his rifle, a
muzzle-loader, and from its barrel projected the ramrod, which had
become fast immediately above the ball while loading. He intended to
draw it out after they should return to camp.

[Illustration: CATCHING AN ALLIGATOR ASLEEP.]

We went ashore with these men to look at an alligator's nest near by,
and were filling our pockets with baby-alligators, when we heard a
grunting sound and saw an alligator eight or nine feet long coming
directly at us. With the exception of the man already referred to, we
were all unarmed and affairs began to look a little unpleasant, for the
creature evidently meant mischief. When it was within a few feet, the
man with the rifle, knowing that he alone had a weapon, took deliberate
aim and fired bullet, ramrod, and all down the 'gator's throat. The
animal turned over twice, and rolling off the bank, sank out of sight.

The alligators of the Amazon River in South America are very numerous,
and owing to scarcity of hunters attain a very great size. In the upper
waters apparently they are entirely unaccustomed to the report of
firearms, and if not actually hit will lie still while shot after shot
is fired. The largest I ever killed and measured was thirteen feet and
four inches in length; but this was much smaller than many which I shot
from dugouts and canoes too far away from shore to tow them in.

Buried an inch deep in one of these dead alligators I once found a
pirana, that troublesome fish which makes swimming in some parts of the
Amazon a risky matter. It bores into flesh very much after the manner of
a circular punch, and when it starts, its habit is to go to the bone.
The pirana of course could not penetrate the hide of the alligator, but
entering by the bullet-hole it had turned to one side and partially
buried itself in the flesh. I have seen men bearing very ugly scars, the
results o