Part 36 (1/2)

The traveller knew that too, and as he believed that the conversation could as well be carried on while crossing over, he added:

”Make haste, I pray, my good man; I am in a hurry, and I should not like to pa.s.s the night here in these canes for a hundred dollars.”

”Nor I, for a thousand,” answered Gibson. ”Well, stranger, what will you give me to ferry you over?”

”The usual fare, I suppose--two or three dollars.”

”Why, that may do for a poor man in fine weather, and having plenty of time to spare, but I be blessed if I take you for ten times that money now that you are in so great a hurry and have such a storm behind.”

The traveller knew at once he had to deal with a blackguard, but as he was himself an Arkansas man of the genuine breed, he resolved to give him a ”Roland for an Oliver.”

”It is a shameful imposition,” he cried; ”how much do you want after all?”

”Why, not a cent less than fifty dollars.”

The stranger turned his horse round, as if he would go back; but, after a few moments, he returned again.

”Oh,” he cried, ”you are a rogue, and take the opportunity of my being in so great a hurry. I'll give you what you want, but mind I never will pa.s.s this road again, and shall undoubtedly publish your conduct in the Arkansas newspapers.”

Gibson chuckled with delight; he had humbugged a stranger, and did not care a fig for all the newspapers in the world; so he answered, ”Welcome to do what you please;” and, untying the boat, he soon crossed the stream. Before allowing the stranger to enter the ferry, Gibson demanded the money, which was given to him under the shape of five ten-dollar notes, which he secured in his pocket, and then rowed with all his might.

On arriving on the other side, the stranger led his horse out of the boat, and while Gibson was stooping down to fix the chain, he gave him a kick on the temple, which sent him reeling and senseless in his boat; then taking back his own money, he sprung upon his saddle, and pa.s.sing before the cabin, he gently advised Gibson's wife to ”go and see, for her husband had hurt himself a little in rowing.”

These extortions are so very frequent, and now so well known, that the poorer cla.s.ses of emigrants never apply for the ferries, but attempt the pa.s.sage just as they can, and when we call to mind that the hundreds of cases which are known and spoken of must be but a fraction of those who have disappeared without leaving behind the smallest clue of their former existence and unhappy fate, the loss of human life within the last four or five years must have been awful.

Besides the alligator and the cawana, there are in these rivers many other destructive animals of a terrible appearance, such as the devil jack diamond fish, the saw fish, the horn fish, and, above all, the much dreaded gar. The first of these is often taken in summer in the lakes and bayous, which, deprived of water for a season, are transformed into pastures; these lakes, however, have always a channel or deeper part, and there the devil jack diamond has been caught, weighing four hundred pounds and upwards.

The saw fish is peculiar to the Mississippi and its tributaries, and varies in length from four to eight feet. The horn fish is four feet long, with a bony substance on his upper jaw, strong, curved, and one foot long, which he employs to attack horses, oxen, and even alligators, when pressed by hunger. But the gar fish is the most terrible among the American ichthyology, and a Louisiana writer describes it in the following manner:--

”Of the gar fish there are numerous varieties. The alligator gar is sometimes ten feet long, and is voracious, fierce, and formidable, even to the human species. Its dart in rapidity equals the flight of a bird; its mouth is long, round, and pointed, thick set with sharp teeth; its body is covered with scales so hard as to be impenetrable by a rifle-bullet, and which, when dry, answers the purposes of a flint in striking fire from steel; its weight is from fifty to four hundred pounds, and its appearance is hideous; it is, in fact, the shark of rivers, but more terrible than the shark of the sea, and is considered far more formidable than the alligator himself.”

It is, in fact, a most terrible animal. I have seen it more than once seizing its prey, and dragging it down with the rapidity of an arrow.