RIDING A WILD ALLIGATOR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1206, 20 November 1882, Page 2

RIDING A WILD ALLIGATOR.

On last Saturday morning a scene took place at Lake Lochoosa Station, on the Peninsular Railroad, which for genuine excitement and sensation will completely lay in the shade the best Spanish bull-fight on record. A party of men on the wharf saw a largo alligator about a hundred yards out in the lake, gen'ly reposing amid the ripple that a gentle breeze was making Some of the party got into a boat, carrying with them a small harpoon hook, and rowed out to the alligator. When at a convenient distance the harpoon was thrown, and with unerring shot made its way into the beast, just behind the right forc-leg. No sooner than this was done, and while the alligator was raging in the waters in its most powerful efforts to release itself, one of the party, a Mr Posey, a man probably fifty years of age, leaped into tho lake, swam to the rearing and surging monster, got on its back, grabbed it round the neck, and rode it to land amid the shouts of those who were fortunate enough to witness the exciting scene. When measured the monster was found to be 10ft. Oin. long. Strange to say, after Mr Posey had backed hitn, and

grappled him around the neck, the beast was almost entirely subdued. A few lunges, and ho quietly followed the tightening of the rope until h.e reached the shore a tamer but greatly confused alligator. His mouth was then muzzled and a rope tied around his belly, and it was hauled up at the platform at the depot. When the afternoon train came along the passengers got out to look at the beast and its valiant captor, and then another scene took place, quite as exciting and extraordinary as the one in the water. Posey got on the ’gator to ride it for tho entertainment of tho crowd. After much tickling and spurring he aroused the animal into such a desperate struggle for free dom that everybody expected to see somebody chewed up and swallowed by it. In the melee it snapped tho ropes that were bound round its long : and brutal mouth, and then, making , a dash for the ground, it was swung I by a rope, tied round its body, and ■ fastened to a post. It soon broke this, and fell heavily to the ground, where I it put out for the lake. But it was j scarcely landed before Posey was on I his back, when a struggle ensued be- j tween man and alligator that could I scarcely have its parallel in the arena j of acrobatic action.

Tho crowd scattered at this appalling scene, and men there, who, if fist-fights with alligators were a feasible and practicable thing, would be strong enough for tho business, exclaimed that the world had not treasure enough to enter for such a struggle. Yet, in a few minutes, Posey was master of the situation, the saurian was conquered, and lay as quietly under the grasp of its conqueror, as if, instead of being 4001 b of real live alligator, it was the most cowardly cur. A shout of victory went up for Posey, and parties went to his assistance, and again tying and securing the animal, the job was completed, and the hero of the fight offered his prisoner in the market for the trifling sum of lOdols.