The alligator is among the animals that are disappearing before perpetual hunting and the presence of men about their old haunts. They are still numerous, but fewer than they were some years ago. They will die out speedily unless people undertake to raise them on alligator farms. And why should people do that? For the sake of their skins. Alligator skins make a strong and handsome leather, very beautiful for bags, portmanteaus, purses, boots, portfolios; and for the sake of their skins they should be reared. FOOTNOTES: [71] A true _Crocodilus Americanus_, long overlooked or mistaken for an alligator, has been discovered in America. [72] _Alligator Mississippiensis._ [73] The alligator, like the crocodile, can close the nostril opening and remain under water for some time. LESSON XXXIX. WISER THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD. “Beyond the shadows of the ship I watched the water snakes; They moved in tracks of shining white; And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes.” --COLERIDGE, _Ancient Mariner_. Between man and the snake there seems to be placed an instinctive and unappeasable enmity. The snake, seeing any human being, either glides off in haste, or coils itself up and hisses, or throws itself forward in attack. The human being, on the other hand, experiences fear, disgust, aversion, and seizes stick or stone, or makes use of his heel, if well protected, to kill the snake. “War to the death, and no quarter,” seems to be the cry between the highest of the mammals and the serpent tribe. [Illustration: OUR NATURAL ENEMY.] “As hideous as a snake” is a common phrase, born of the hatred between man and the ophidian order, but in point of fact, were enmity left out of the question, the creatures of the serpent tribe are not hideous. A lithe, long, cylindrical body, coated with glittering scales, and splendid with all the colors of the rainbow, elegantly arranged in rings, lines, or dots; bright eyes; graceful motions; a tongue that plays to and fro like lightning in an open throat, often of vivid flame color; a head sometimes crested as if bearing a royal crown,--these are some of the characteristics of that serpent family, which instinctively we call “hideous” and “hateful.” To the above briefly noted particulars we may add that the eyes of snakes are lidless and the sight somewhat feeble; the sense of smell is better developed, and the nostrils are placed close to the mouth. The mouth is large proportionately, and opens widely; the tongue is the organ of touch; there are no external ears, and snakes seem to be deficient in hearing. Snakes have no external limbs, except in two or three species, where there are mere rudiments of hind-legs visible. The snake’s body is elastic and capable of enormous distention. It is furnished with a spinal column, and with numerous ribs. The ribs and scutes, or large scales, are the chief organs of locomotion.