, who, on going to the margin of the river
to fetch water, felt one of her hands suddenly seized in the jaws of a
huge alligator. Knowing that death must be her inevitable fate should
she not find means to rescue herself, she plunged her fingers into the
eyes of the animal with such violence that the pain compelled it to let
her go; though not, however, till it had bitten off the lower part of
her arm. Notwithstanding the enormous quantity of blood which flowed
from the fearful wound, the girl struck out, swimming with the hand that
still remained to her, and happily reached the shore, where her friends
received her; and her wound being bound up and the flow of blood
stopped, she ultimately recovered.

Alligators swim rapidly against the strongest current; and when they
reach the shore they dart forward with the quickness of an arrow towards
the object at which they aim, when excited either by rage or hunger.
Under ordinary circumstances the creature moves with the slowness of a
salamander; but it frequently runs,--when it makes a rustling noise,
which proceeds from the rubbing of the scales of its skin one against
another. In this movement it bends its back and appears higher on its
legs than when at rest. Though it generally moves in a straight line,
it can change its direction, both in the water and on shore.

"Jumbo, there, hates alligators as much as I do," continued the doctor.
"He was once very nearly caught by one; but he knows the ways of the
hateful creatures. I was crossing a river in a canoe, when he unwisely
took to the water. I had reached the shore, when I saw a huge alligator
swimming towards him. Jumbo saw it too, and made way down the stream,
the alligator following and rapidly gaining on him. In an instant I
thought my poor dog would be in the creature's jaws, when Jumbo suddenly
turned and made way up the stream. It took the alligator a considerable
time to come about, and before it was able to dart forward towards its
expected prey Jumbo had safely reached the shore."

The doctor declared that the female alligator, at the period of hatching
her eggs, devours all her young ones which do not run into the river;
the immediate use of their legs being the only means of saving their
lives.

"I cannot fancy such monsters having any maternal affection," I
exclaimed.

These and similar anecdotes occupied the time we took in crossing the
lake. We now entered the last channel, which was to condu