336 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

for a week, when an Irishman of the party going into the ~
water during the day, stumbled upon an alligator, which
seized him by the knee. His cries alarmed his companions,
who fearing he had been seized by the Spaniards, to whom
the island belonged, instead of affording assistance, fled from
the huts which they had erected. The Irishman seeing no
appearance of help, with happy presence of mind (a quality
which the natives of that country possess in an eminent
degree) quietly waited till the alligator loosened his teeth to
take a new and surer hold; and when it did so, snatched
away his knee, interposing the butt-end of his gun in its
stead, which the animal seized so firmly that it was jerked
out of the man’s hand and carried off. He then crawled
up a neighbouring tree, again shouting after his comrades,
who now found courage to return.” Mr. Waterton in his
“Wanderings” says, “One Sunday evening, some years ago,
as I was walking with Don Felipe de Ynciarte, governor of
Augustura, on the bank of the Orodnque, ‘Stop here a
minute or two, Don Carlos,’ said he to me, ‘while I recount -
a sad accident. One fine evening last year, as the people
of Augustura were sauntering up and down here, in the
Alameda, I was within twenty yards of this place, when I
saw a large Cayman rush out of the river, seize a man, and
carry him down, before any one had power to assist him.
The screams of the poor fellow were terrible as the Cayman
was running off with him; he plunged in the river with his
prey; we instantly lost sight of him, and never saw or heard
him more.’”

A Tame That the Alligator is amenable to kindness is

Alligator. shown by the following account of a tame specimen,
which we quote from Mr. Jesse. He says, “The most singular
instance of attachment between two animals, whose nature
and habits were most opposite, was related to me by a
person on whose veracity I can place the greatest reliance.
Before he took up his abode at Hampden-court, he had