EATEN ALIVE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4653, 25 January 1924, Page 4

EATEN ALIVE.

BY HUGE AELIGATOK;

QUEENSLAND TRAGEDY.

A shocking, tragedy—the devouring of a man by a huge alligator—is reported from North Queensland. Five-mile Creek, a tributary of the Tully River, a few miles..out of Cardwe’l. North Queensland, was the scene of the tragedy. , A party of men were swimming in a deep pool, when a huge alligatoi appeared amongst them, and, .seizing a man named C. League, devoured bim before their eyes. The hole in which League met his death was frequently used by the men engaged on the railway line which is being constructed. The Tully River is infested with alligators, and they often make their way up to the tributaries an 1 lie under the wooded banks,, awaiting stray cattle which come to the water side to drink.

Alligators have been seen before in Five mile creek, but not near the swimming pool, and the party which went there to bathe on Monday evening after work had no thought of the danger which lay hidden under the wooded bank. Several of them had been in the water, some time. Among them was League. They were about to leave the pool when with one accord they turned, alarmed by fierce splashing on the farther bank.

They saw a huge .scaly body rear itself out of the water, seize their companion, and -sink beneath the water. It was not seen again in the pool. Hurriedly the men dressed, and seizing what firearms they could lay hands on, set out along the banks of the five-mile creek, a party on either side, to hunt down the man-eater.

After travelling some distance upstream they came across the huge brute, nosing his way through the shallows. They opened fire on him, and a few seconds after he began to lash up the sand, mortally wounded. The alligator was dragged ashore and ripped open. League’s dead body, slightly lacerated, was recovered. The alligator was exceptionally large for these waters. He measured 13 feet from snout to tail-tip.

League’s body was buried by his companions.

The Tully river is notorious for two things—’savage blacks and man-eat-ing alligators. A peculiar feature of the tragedy is that the alligator should have swallowed its v.’ctim. As a rule the custom of the alligator is to kill its prey and then take it away and bury it in ,the mud, and devour it at its leisure.