The visitors were puzzled,
and Finn then ordered one of the negroes to bring a couple of powerful
oxen, yoked to a gill, employed to drag out the stumps of old trees. For
many minutes the oxen were lashed and goaded in vain; every yarn of the
hawser was strained to the utmost, till, at last, the two brutes,
uniting all their strength in one vigorous and final pull, it was
dragged from the water, but the monster had escaped. The hook had
straightened, and to its barb were attached pieces of thick bones and
cartilages, which must have belonged to the palate of the monster.
The unfortunate traveller has but little chance of escaping with life,
if, from want of experience, he is foundered in the swampy canebrakes.
When the horse sinks and the rider leaves the saddle, the only thing he
can do is to return back upon his track; but let him beware of these
solitary small patches of briars, generally three or four yards in
circumference, which are spread here and there on the edges of the
canebrakes, for there he will meet with deadly reptiles and snakes
unknown in the prairies; such as the grey-ringed water mocassin, the
brown viper, the black congo with red head and the copper head, all of
whom congregate and it may be said make their nests in these little dry
oases, and their bite is followed by instantaneous death.
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