SEIZED BY AN ALLIGATOR.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2465, 28 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEIZED BY AN ALLIGATOR.

V her book on pioneering life in youth Vustralia, Mrs Dominic D. Daly, tells lie following ; —The waters of Port )arwiu were not free from the dreaded <nemy always to be mot with in the ropics. Alligators were very numerous : n fact, the harbour was infested by hem. One poor fellow was taken by an Uigator, during my sojourn unile.- the ollowing painful circumstances :—Disrejarding the standing order against lathing, a young trooper named Davis, a ;reat swimmer, and a smart, active man, I'ent for a swim early one morning. He iad been some time in the water wheu ie saw what he imagined to be a log loating quietly down the harbour with he tide. It waa a most common thing o see cnormons trees and locs of vood corcje down the harbour \yith he ebb ; and tq watch, the same timber ,nd debris return with the flood was omewhatofan occupation. There is a ;reat similarity between a log and an alligator when in the water—both float, ust showing the merest outline above the vater. Poor Davia saw to his utter iorror when he drew nearer that it was in alligator, but it waa hopeless to iseape, though he tried to do so, and nimediately made for the shore. At ;his moment his danger was seen frpm ;he deck of the Gulnare, and the men jailed out to him to "go back." It was, lowever, too late | for, as Davis turned lis face towards the shore, the monster jame swiftly behind him, and stretching ilia cruel yawning jaws over him imprisoned the poor victim's head within their deadly clasp, and in a moment had disappeared carrying Divis with him. We hardly expected to find his body, although a diligent search was l)egr,r ( tit r>lloo i an.d a ffiW liQiirs ajtmyanjs it was discqvered lying on the edge of a reef a little distance down the harbour. His neck was broken ; the cruel teeth of the alligitor had seized his forehead, and on each temple was a deep punctured wound. No further injury was douu to the body. Evidently the brute was friuhtened by fche noise from tl ( e boats, and had propped h,is prey, ju sb,ajlow. water, instead, qf p/nxyiny, qs alljgatp,rs generally dq, t|]p viqtii]] into (Jeep, water to soiy|e lair, of their own, from w.hencc it is never recqvered.