"What expressions can sufficiently declare the shocking scene that for some minutes continued, whilst this mighty army of fish were forcing the pass? During this attempt, thousands, I may say hundreds of thousands of them were caught and swallowed by the devouring alligators. I have seen an alligator take up out of the water several great fish at a time, and just squeeze them betwixt his jaws while the tails of the great trout flapped about his eyes and lips, ere he had swallowed them. The horrid noise of their closing jaws, their plunging amidst the broken banks of fish, and rising with their prey some feet upright above the water, the floods of water and blood rushing out of their mouths, and the clouds of vapour issuing from their wide nostrils, were truly frightful."
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William Bartram, "In the Home of the Alligator", Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wild_animal_suffering
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William Bartram
William Bartram (April 20, 1739 – July 22, 1823) was an American botanist, ornithologist, natural historian, and explorer.
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