Of this class, the most terrible is the alligator. The description of this animal by Mr. Audubon is so interesting, and so strongly marked by the agreeable peculiarities of his attractive and original style, that we shall transfer it to our pages with but slight abridgment. This distinguished naturalist, by his eminent services in the cause to which he has been so zealously devoted, has erected an eternal monument; and posterity will read the name which it records for ages, after every trace of the great warriors and ambitious politicians of our time has faded from the pages of history. ‘In Louisiana, all our lagoons, bayous, creeks, ponds, lakes and rivers, are well stocked with alligators; they are found wherever there is a sufficient quantity of water to hide them, or to furnish them with food; and they continue thus, in great numbers, as high as the mouth of the Arkansas river, extending east to North Carolina, and as far west as I have penetrated. On the Red river, before it was navigated by steam vessels, they were so extremely abundant that, to see hundreds at a sight along the shores, or on the immense rafts of 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 or 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 tracts are seen as plentiful as those of sheep in a fold. It was on that river particularly, thousands of the largest size were killed, when 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 prevent water or 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 able to receive the highest degree of polish and finishing.