Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1902 — STRANGE SERPENT SLAIN IN EVERGLADES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STRANGE SERPENT SLAIN IN EVERGLADES.

CT? N enormous neptile, more like the mythical dragon than a land serpent, has been killed by a hunter in the lower Everglades. For 100 years it <■*?> has not only been a tradition among the Seminole Indians, who live in the Florida everglades, that an immense serpent made its home in that region, and they affirm that two Indians had been carried off by the monster. Recently Buster Ferrel, one of the boldest and most noted hunters at Okochobee, who for twenty years has made the .border of the lake and the everglades his home, on one of his periodical expeditions Into one of these lonesome wilds noted what he supposed to be the pathway of an immense alligator. For several days he visited the locality for the purpose of killing the saurian, but was unsuccessful in finding him. Finally he decided to take a stand in a large cypress tree and await ths coming of the alligator, taki«|g provisions to last him several days. For two days he stood on watch, with his rifle ready, but without the desired success. He was becoming discouraged, but determined to give one more day to the effort. On the third day, before he had been on his perch an hour, he was almost paralyzed by what looked to him like an immense serpent gliding along the supposed alligator track. He estimated it to be anywhere from twenty to thirty feet long and fully ten to twelve inches in diameter where the head joined thg body and as large around as a barrel ten feet farther hack. The snrke stopped within easy reach of his gun and raised its head to take a precautionary view of its surroundings. As it did Ferrel opened fire on it, shooting at its head. Taken by surprise, the serpent dashed into the marsh at railroad speed, while Ferrel kept up fire on it until ha had emptied the magazine of his rifle, but failed to stop it. i About four days afterward he ventured back into the neighborhood to see how things were, and about a mile from where he first saw the snake he saw a large flock of buzzards and went to see what they were after, and there he found the creature dead and its body so badly torn by the buzzards that it was impossible to save the skin. He however, secured its head and has it now in his home on the Kissimmee river. It is truly a frightful looking object, fully ten inches from jaw to jay, with ugly, razorlike teeth.

“DRAGON OF THE EVERGLADES," FROM A SKETCH BY AN INDIAN.