floating or stranded timber, was quite a common occurrence, the smaller on the backs of the larger, groaning and uttering their bellowing noise, like thousands of irritated bulls about to meet in fight; but all so careless of man, that, unless shot at, or positively disturbed, they remained motionless, suffering boats and canoes to pass within a few yards of them, without noticing them in the least. The shores are yet trampled by them in such a manner, that their large tracks are seen as plentiful as those of sheep in a fold. It was on that river particularly, that thousands of large ones were killed, while the mania of having shoes, boots, or saddle-seats, made of their hides lasted. It had become an article of trade, and many of the squatters and strolling Indians followed for a time no other business. The discovery that their skins are not sufficiently firm and close-grained to resist water and dampness long, put a stop to their general destruction, which had already become very apparent. The leather prepared from these skins was handsome and very pliant, exhibiting all the regular lozenges of the scales, and susceptible of the highest degree of polish and finishing. When Alligators are fishing, the flapping of their tails about the water may be heard at the distance of half a mile; but to describe this in a more graphic way, suffer me to take you along with me, in one of my hunting excursions, accompanied by friends and negroes.
"In the immediate neighbourhood of Bayou-Sarah, on the Mississippi, are extensive shallow lakes and morasses; they are yearly overflowed by the dreadful floods of that river, and supplied with myriads of fishes of many kinds, amongst
