The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-10-15
BATTLE WITH ~ALLIGATORS.
Thrilling Adventure of an Euslish
Party Near Panama.

Thrilling of an EuSltsh
Party Near Pan-ma.
The story ct an exciting fight with ALI
gators comes from Panan The p~Artici-
pants were q party of officers from the
English ship Pelican and Henry Forbes
and Frank Winters. The party left the
bay Of Panama in the Pelican's launch,
according to the San Francisco Examiner,
accompanied by native guides. They were
armed with Remington rifles n with
reyolvers. The launch made a run OF 20
miles to the south of the Rio Sucio with
out incident.
The river narrowed gradually, its banks
clothed with gorgeous tropical vegetation
and indented by little baokwaters, which
seemed to be the abode of myriads of sol
emn cranes and famingoes. The hunters
heard the strange cries Of brilliant plum
aged birds and passed close enough to see
the humming birds dArting like scintillat-
ing rays of light in the foliage.
The hunters presently reached q Kind
of open pool. with small sSresms n back
waters radiating in every direction. The
air was heavy with the sickening, heavy
smell of musk, which indicated the prox-
unity of the haunts Of the saurian. Guild
ed by a peon the boats turned up a small
creek, and, upon rounding a sharp bend,
the hunters were greeted with a wonderful
spectacle. A vast stretch Of mud was en-
tirely covered with a living mass Of hask-
ing alligators. There were hundreds OF
the repulsive reptiles. The place was lit
orally paved with scaly saurians, big and
little. A person could have walked all
over the island without once touching the
mud itself
In attempting to get closer to the vast
herd both boats grounded. The occupants
were SO excited that the grounding was
considered a small thing. With one accord
the men stood up and began pumping lead
into the unconscious ~alligators. The scene
that ensued is beyond the power OF words
to describe.
Up to this time the hunters had not re-
allied the gravity of their predicainent in
being aground. The unpleasant fact
dawned upon them that the boats were
etwee the hundreds of angry alligators
and the river behind, SO that In order to
escape the reptiles were compelled to pass
them by some means. No ooner bad
every rife been discharged than the whole
hideous herd made q dash for safety,
which was right over the boats. It was q
question of courage and promptness then.
Death stared them in the face. The
barking guns poured a deadly ha11 of lead
into the advancing saurians. 70 the hor-
ror Of the hunters the brutes did not seem
to care for the hot fire, Notwithstanding
thai numbers of them we're already dead
on the river bank. Hundreds and hum
dreds of the repulsive creatures were
crawling down upon the boats, their long
tails trailing in the mud as they advanced.
On the right hand side of the boats nine
or ten of the largest alligators lay in their
death throes, lashing the reeking mud
with their tails and hurting the sinking
filth high into the air. The monsters
crawled over one another in their hurry to
escape. There was q wilderness of snap
ping jaws and catapultic tails before the
hunted hunters. The revolvers came into
active play, and the spiteful barks Of the
weapons were mixed with the hoarse roars
of the maddened brutes. 1t was a perfect
avalanche of alligators.
At the critical moment an accident &C.
CURED which for a time palsied the nerves
and froze the very blood of the men,
whose eyes shone with the light of battle.
Several of the brutes dived into the lnire
under the canoe, which had the effect of
heeling the little craft over. The sudden
movement threw Winters, who was stand
ing in the bow, into the semiliquid mud