ached my ears. As this sound was frequently
repeated, and always in advance of my boat, it roused my curiosity. It
proved to come from alligators. One after another slipped off the banks,
striking the water with their tails as they took refuge in the river
from the disturber of their peace. To observe the movements of these
reptiles I ran the canoe within two rods of the left shore, and by rapid
paddling was enabled to arrive opposite a creature as he entered the
water. When thus confronted, the alligator would depress his ugly head,
lash the water once with his tail, and dive under the canoe, a most
thoroughly alarmed animal. All these alligators were mere babies, very
few being over four feet long. Had they been as large as the one which
greeted me at Colonel's Island, I should not have investigated their
dispositions, but would have considered discretion the better part of
valor, and left them undisturbed in their sun-baths on the banks.

In all my experience with the hundreds of alligators I have seen in the
southern rivers and swamps of North America, every one, both large and
small, fled at the approach of man. The experience of some of my friends
in their acquaintance with American alligators has been of a more
serious nature. It is well to exercise care about camping at night close
to the water infested with large saurians, as one of these strong
fellows could easily seize a sleeping man by the leg and draw him into
the river. They do not seem to fear a recumbent or bowed figure, but,
like most wild animals, flee before the _upright_ form of man.

Late in the afternoon I passed an island, made by a "cut-off" through
a bend of the river, and, according to previous directions, counted
fourteen bends or reaches in the river which was to guide me to
Stewart's Ferry, the owner of which lived back in the woods, his cabin
not being discernible from the river. Near this spot, which is
occasionally visited by lumbermen and piny-woods settlers, I drew my
canoe on to a sandy beach one rod in length. A little bluff, five or
six feet above the water, furnished me with the broad leaves of the
saw-palmetto, a dwarfish sort of palm, which I arranged for a bed. The
provision-basket was placed at my head. A little fire of light-wood
cheered me for a while, but its bright flame soon attracted winged
insects in large numbers. Having made a cup of chocolate, and eaten
some of Captain Akin's chipped beef and crackers, I continued my