SEIZED BY ALLIGATOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 82

SEIZED BY ALLIGATOR.

STATION MANAGER’S DEATH WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDY. (From Ocr Own Cobres- indent.) SYDNEY, FebrTOry 12. Australia possesses few animals that are dangerous to mankind, but of those few the alligators which infest the rivers and inlets of the tropical north are undoubtedly the worst. From time to time reports filter through to the cities of this danger to the settlers in Australia’s least settled regions. Sometimes it is a native that is taken, sometimes it is an incautious white man, sometimes a horse or cow. An account of one such tragedy has just been received in Perth. It occurred four days before Christmas, but so remote are some of these sparsely-settled areas of the continent and so slender are the means of communication that in this instance the victim’s mother did jk t learn of the tragedy that befell her son until a few days ago. The vict :m was Frederick Easton, manager of Avon Vale cattle station, about 106 miles north of Derby, a seaport on the north-western coast of Western Australia. NewS of the calamity was received in a letter written to Easton’s mother by Mr C. J. de Lancourt, an adventurous Frenchman who is walking round the coast of Australia. De Lancourt had spent * 4 few days at Avon Vale station as the guest >f Easton. The latter agreed to provide de Lancourt with a dinghy to cross the Isdeil River, and sen: two n ives ahead, while de Lancourts Iwu boys, Paddy and Leggins, remained with Easton. De Lancourt crossed the river in the dinghy, and then, for a reason not made clear in de Lanecurt’s letter, Easton decided to cross the river at an inlet two miles lower down. Easton removed h's boots, and gave them and hie rifle to Leggins to carry. An alligator had evidently watched the wh.te man's movements, for no sooner had Easton reached deep water than he was seized by a leg. A fierce struggle ensue !. atm ,* ith Leggings help Easton managed to free himself from the alligator’s grip. The white man was seriously maimed. To support him, Leggins dropped the rifle lie was carrying, and, as if sensing the loss of tins weapon, the alligator returned to the attack. Easton and Leggins set up a f irful commotion, but, not to be denied, the alligator again seized Easton, this time by the thigh. The scared Legginr; feit him dragged inexorably from his grasp, and, much exhausted, aud greatly frightened, ho scrambled breathlessly ashore. By this time Easton, in the jaws of the saurian, had Hsappeared. As is the custom with these reptiles, the alligator had dragged his prey beneath the surface of the water. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently Leggins appears to have set off after de Lancourt and recounted tlio tragedv. Do Lancourt returned tj the spot, and examination of the scene confirmed Leggins’s story. Easton was never seen again.