The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-28

exposition at Jacksonville. | saw il there
ana now my idea Of the sea COW is clearer
io does not roam about the country below
ing ahG swallowing whole sheep; it has no
mar anu no horIs, nor hOofs, nor angry tail.
IN appearance 1t Is no more ike a cow than
IL Is Ike chicken, and its name comes not
from lis shape, but from its habit Of living
on grass and green vegetables, instead of
eating fish or flesh.
w dld not have TO go far when we
reached the black water before we came
upon the first alhgator-aImost ''came
upon" him literally, for it was at a place
where the channel ran close by the left
Dank, and he was asleep within ten feet of
the boat. Asleep, Of course, with one eye
open, as they always are, ready to vanish
on the nrSG appearance of danger. 1t was
easy to see, as the reptile lay curled in the
sun, how easily the most honest traveller
might be mistaken in his estimate of an al
ngator's size. This fellow might have been
SIX teet long, or sixteen, for all that we could
see. de was almost the color of the mud, and
as motlonless as the trunk of tree. He
sa" us gliding past, of course, but made no
move. MIR. Warner held up finger for a
warning to US to make no noise, and picked
up and cooked his rifle. In an instant we
heard the shot and the alligator was gone.
There was just a wriggle IN the mud, a
slight splash in She water, and an impress
slon IN the mud to show where the beast
had lain. Although he had been as plain
before us as hand held in front of the
race, he went SO quickly that none of us
could tell whether he got into the water
head first, tail first. or sideways.
How big do you think that fellow wasr
Mr.. Warner asked.
ventured a guess at eight feet.
He was barely six" Mr.. Warner re-
piled. They always look bigger than
they are. If you kill an old settler that
looks as If he might be ten or twelve feet
long you lind, when you come to measure
him, that he is barely eight. had fair
SHOT at that fellows eye and might have
Killed him easily, but l wanted to frig hten
him OF, TO see whether any of you could
tell how he escaped. Which end do you
think went into the water firsts"
None of us were willing to hazard an
opinion.
lie went head first, as they always do.
Sometimes when they are lying on log, if
you rire bullet at them they seem to roll
Oh Sideways but the head ALWAYS reaches
the water first, unless he is disabled. That
has made great deal of discussion. The
alligator is not as ungainly creature as he
seems. He is wonderfully flexible, and can
turn himself about on q small log
Some of us were inclined to doubt this.
D lhAhh L Cau COuNllCt you OF II, NIT,
Warner replied. Anywhere around
Florida you can buy photographs of alliga-
tors climbing up inclined logs reaching out
of the water, the head toward the top of the
log, the tail toward the water. Now.
although those are genuine photographs, all
alligator never lies that way. When he is
caught In that position it is while he is
just climbing out. Before he settles
himself for a nap he will turn about
aud have bis head pointed for tho
water, ready to dive ON the approach of
danger. A cat can climb up a tree, but
she cAnnot climb down again without going
backward, on account Of the shape OF her
claws. 1t Is the same way with an alli-
gator; he eau climb up an inclined log, but
he cannot go up it backward, SO it stands
TO reason that he must turn around. When
he is frightened off he does not stop to
climb, but disappears like fish, If you
notice the rest Of the alligators we see to-
day you will see that they all sleep with
Their head toward TIE water"
The CELEBRITY with which our first 6-footer
took himself off led to some discussion
about tho speed of an alligator's move
ments on land, and Mr.. Warner was conf
dent that they can travel us fast as a man
can run, where the ground is favorable
for them. They are invisible almost from
the instsnt they strike the water, letting
themselves sink into the soft mud, except in
cases whore they desire cool look at the
enemy, when they sometimes swim a con-
siderable distance with their eyes and nose
above the surface. They are more at
home, of course, in the water, aud can
swim very rapidly, using not only their
legs or fins. but propelling themselves by
the tall. An alligator swimming quietly in
clear water seems to glide forward without
any effort at all until something alarms
him, and he gives wIiggle with his tail
that sends him along like a flash. l have
heard natives of Florida argue seriously
that alllgators can, and sometimes do, climb
trees, but never saw one taking such ex-
ercise. / never did, though, see any animal
of equal size that could move as rapidly as
an alligator disappearing from mud bank
Five minutes later we were evidently in
the alhgators' own country. There were
two little fellows together lying on the
same log, then big one alone on a mud
bank, and after that they seemed to be
everywhere on shore, doz3ns, scores, hun
dreds of them, and as the boat puffej along
there was continual Splash Splash" OF
gators frightened out of their afternoon
nap, retiring to the water. When we were
close to the shore there was aslight smell
of musk in the air, for alligators have this
smell very distictly, and on a calm day
big one may be smelled long distance off
The rattleSnake has the same smell, and ia
the Florida woods, near a river or pond.
when you smell musk you may be sure OF
the proximity of either an ALLIGATOR or a
rattlesnake, and if l were alone and I'm
armed think one would be about as cheer
full neighbor as the other.
We were by this time ten or twelve miles
above Palma Sofa, with acres of scrub
palmetto land on each side-nOt acres. but
thousands of acres, and had seen several
hundred alligators. This scrub palmetto
land is about the worst thing the new
Florida settler can encounter am rather
fond of digging myself, but if | were 10 be
landed in the midst of al acre of scrub
palmetto, with the prospect of having to
clear it, think should follow the Florida
custom and sit down and ruminate Such
land can be bought for less than S. an
acre, and it would generally be extremely
dear as a gift. There are large tracts of
this land on both banks of the Upper
Manatee The soil is all right, good,
honest sand, but the palmetto is the
trouble.
1t does not come up straight and fair out
of the ground, but comes up with a curve.
A shoot as big as your leg shows itself
standing above the surface, runs along
parallel with the ground for a foot, or per-
haps two or three feet, and then curves w
ward till there is a stalk about two feet
high. From the end Of this grows a little
scrubby palmetto bush. In a space twenty
feet square there may be dozen of these
things growing. They look innocent
n--IT !