ALLIGATORS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 538, 3 August 1869, Page 2

ALLIGATORS.

Alligator stories will soon supersede the less thrilling narratives of snakes. We read in the Cleveland Bay Express how Sergeant Higgins was driving two horses across a creek when they were charged by two with open mouths, one of them apparently twenty-five feet long. The shouts and other noises of the men upon the bank scared the monsters, and the horses crossed in safety. From the Norman Eiver there comes a more tragic tale. In that river the alligators are so numerous and daring that they will not leave the steamer path until they are actually disturbed by the motion of the floats. As the steamer Pioneer was on its voyage, a Kanaka belonging to the vessel was standing on the margin of the river unfastening a rope, when he was charged by one of these terrible saurians. The people on board who saw the danger, cried out to alarm the man; but before he could make his escape the alligator seized him by the thigh. The unfortunate man threw his arm round some mangroves,and so held on until assistance came from the steamer. Six men quickly seized him, and then there was a horrible trial of strength between human muscles and the jaws of the alligator. The captain struck the brute a blow on the head with an axe that forced him to let »o his hold, and the victim was dragged away. The alligator, however, made another charge up the bank, but was repelled with difficulty by repeated blows of the axe. The poor Kanaka's leg was taken off below the knee. Medical assistance was near at hand but the excessive loss of blood rendered recovery hopeless. The man died within fifteen minutes after he had reached the doctor's dispensary.