at, he soon crossed the
stream. Before allowing the stranger to enter the ferry, Gibson demanded
the money, which was given to him under the shape of five ten-dollar
notes, which he secured in his pocket, and then rowed with all
his might.

On arriving on the other side, the stranger led his horse out of the
boat, and while Gibson was stooping down to fix the chain, he gave him a
kick on the temple, which sent him reeling and senseless in his boat;
then taking back his own money, he sprung upon his saddle, and passing
before the cabin, he gently advised Gibson's wife to "go and see, for
her husband had hurt himself a little in rowing."

These extortions are so very frequent, and now so well known, that the
poorer classes of emigrants never apply for the ferries, but attempt the
passage just as they can, and when we call to mind that the hundreds of
cases which are known and spoken of must be but a fraction of those who
have disappeared without leaving behind the smallest clue of their
former existence and unhappy fate, the loss of human life within the
last four or five years must have been awful.

Besides the alligator and the cawana, there are in these rivers many
other destructive animals of a terrible appearance, such as the devil
jack diamond fish, the saw fish, the horn fish, and, above all, the much
dreaded gar. The first of these is often taken in summer in the lakes
and bayous, which, deprived of water for a season, are transformed into
pastures; these lakes, however, have always a channel or deeper part,
and there the devil jack diamond has been caught, weighing four hundred
pounds and upwards.

The saw fish is peculiar to the Mississippi and its tributaries, and
varies in length from four to eight feet. The horn fish is four feet
long, with a bony substance on his upper jaw, strong, curved, and one
foot long, which he employs to attack horses, oxen, and even alligators,
when pressed by hunger. But the gar fish is the most terrible among the
American ichthyology, and a Louisiana writer describes it in the
following manner:--

"Of the gar fish there are numerous varieties. The alligator gar is
sometimes ten feet long, and is voracious, fierce, and formidable, even
to the human species. Its dart in rapidity equals the flight of a bird;
its mouth is long, round, and pointed, thick set with sharp teeth; its
body is covered with scales so hard as to be impenetrable by a
rifle-bullet, and which, when dry, answ