Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-28
A Race for Life.

A CHARMING languor, the exquisite lux
ury of ease and relief, was almost akin to
pain in its delicious relaxation and re-
pose. This state of enhancing rest and
refreshment was interrupted by the dog.
Bragg jumped upon my back as I swami
with something between a yelp and a
whine. My first thought was that the old
fellow was as hugely content as myself,
but more boisterous, and was for splash
ing rOmp in the water Nothing 10th, I
turned to give him a good tousle for his
liberties, when horror! not twenty wards
away, his long snout and saw-like spine
bubbling sinuOus above the waves, was
the acCursed dragon of old Nile, huge
alligator, making right at us
There were two Of the monsters; one at
a greater distance to the right, but nearer
to the shore to which [ was swimming;
the other between me and the impossible
haven | had left. / was utterly and in
simultaneously unnerved. The womans
nature in me has never yet been so over
come by my studies as to familiarize into
Indifference an instructive adherence of
anything of the serpent kind. An inno-
cent chameleon lizard, with his pretty
gOrget of striped carmine and white, and
his changeable green and gray coat, is
repugnant to me; the garden snake, fang
less and harmless as butterfly, ar0useth
old Adam as much as the cOiled adder;
and a crocodile adds his grisly, unre-
deemable ugliness to intensity the dread
and hate.
The blood curdled in my heart, and
per 08sG, as the Latin strongly puts it. I
struck out madly, furiously, without sense
or discretion; but was checked and
called to my proper selfcommand by one
dreadful fact: the dog a0GS 0utsaOinll11G1lg me-
Now knew as we'll as if it were q thing
done, that one of us must be sacrificed
for the other. One might possibly escape
from those two monsters, but two could
not. A man having any selfcOntrol can
easily outswim a dog. Aroused by this
reflection, [ struck out again vigorously,
but with long, steady, oar-stroke sweep.
Not overland, which gives only an ap-
pearance of speed, like Mr.. Pecksniff's
h1gh-trOtting horse, but long, regular frog
swimming. | soon saw the effect of it. [
passed the dog, who turned in toward me,
with whine and effort, as | passed. A
crocodile or alligator-they are one and
the same-swims quite rapidly; but he
does not dart like a fish. The dogs nose
or foot touched me, and / looked over my
shoulder 1nVOluuIdIly. AL alligator 5
jaw in the dry skeleton is terrible to look
at; the serried fangs are all made for de
structive rending, not mastication: His
horrid jaws agape with double fang" as
Hschylus describes it. But that huge
tongueless, lipless NAV
And that more wondrous was in either Jaw.
Three ranches of yrOn teeth enraunged were,
In which vet trickling blood and gobbets raw
Of Iate-devoured bodies did appear
Ugh! that l saw, as live to tell it, with
the exaggerated monstrosity of destruc-
tive power in its eighty teeth fitting in al
ternate sockets; the Sits of narrow eyes
glowering above; the long, serrated spine
bubbling above the water right at my
heels.
There was dull, deadened c1umpf, the
drowned yelp of poor Bragg, and dog
and dragon disappeared in a surge of
bubbles.
I was spared this time, but not yet safe.
Sliding over the spot where they had dis
anneared came the second alligator, not
ten wards away. At the moment caught
the overhanging limb of a stout, black
lack oak. clustered with jasmine and
green-brier, and, needless of scratches, |
Swung myself aloft l had the satisfac-
ton of seeing the disappointed monster |
nosing about Observation-Disclosures Mo7at75lyfor |
Nag.