as a chair.  I now began to suspect the cause of his alarm.  The stream was one of those black-looking currents that flow noiselessly along, and which in Florida always harbour the largest-sized alligators.  When I first came to it, I remembered this, and thinking to frighten off any of these lurkers that might be in the vicinity, I had dashed precipitately into the stream.  This practice, or shouting loudly and firing a pistol into the water, usually succeeds.  I soon found out, however, that the presence of one of the ugly creatures was the cause of the horse’s trepidation, for, within six feet of us, I discerned a pair of eyes, set in huge brown excrescences, fixed intently on me and my horse, with malicious gaze.  I knew they belonged to a veteran, and dreading lest its snout might be within two feet of my leg, for the old alligators boast enormous length of jaw, I sat tailor-wise in my saddle, and levelled my rifle at the horrid object; the reptile had, however, observed my movements, and disappeared beneath the surface; I instantly discharged my piece in the direction he had taken, and certainly gave him a lesson, for the water around me was directly after tinged with blood; he was probably hurt severely, or he might have resented my temerity.  I soon after reached the shore in safety, where I was speedily joined by the escort, who saw nothing of the reptile in their way across, and who, being men bred amongst such scenes, and totally divested of fear, at once took the water, although they had witnessed the encounter.

The cayman of South America is very ferocious, and is popularly styled the hyena of the alligator tribe.  This savage creature will instantly attack a man or a horse, and on this account the Indians of Chili, before wading a stream, take the precaution of using long poles, to ascertain its presence or to drive it away.  Naturalists assert that the cayman is not found in the North American rivers, and I should imagine this to be correct, for, although engaged in many alligator hunts, I found from personal experience and minute inquiry that the species found in North America is harmless if unmolested.

After a laborious ride we arrived at Fort Andrews, where we found a military station of U.S.  Infantry.  We halted here for several days, I having business requiring my attention, and ourselves and our beasts needing to recruit our strength, before continuing our route to the Bay.  The forest scenery here almost defies description.  Immense cedars, and other lordly trees, rear their gigantic and lightning-scathed heads over their smaller and less hardy but graceful neighbours; cactuses, mimonias, and tropical shrubs and flowers, which at home are to be seen only in conservatories or green-houses are here in profusion,

  “And plants, at whose name the verse feels loath,
  Fill the place with a monstrous undergrowth,
  Prickly, and pulpous, and blistering, and blue,
  Livid, and starred with a lurid hue,”