FALLING ALLIGATORS

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 26, 1877:

"Dr. J. L. Smith of Silverton Township, South Carolina, while opening up a new turpentine farm, noticed something fall to the ground and commence to crawl toward the tent where he was sitting. On examining the object he found it to be an alligator. In the course of a few moments a second one made its appearance. This so excited the curiosity of the doctor that he looked around to see if he could discover any more and found six others within a space of two hundred yard. The animals were all quite lively, and about twelve inches in lengths. The place whereon they fell is situated on high sandy ground about six miles north of the Savannah River."

More alligators as quoted in Charles Fort's book LO!:

NEW YORK AMERICAN, Sept. 19, 1929:

"....an alligator, 31 inches long, killed in the Hackensack Meadows, N.J., by Carl Weise, 14 Peerless Place, North Bergen, N.J...."

CHICAGO CITIZEN, Feb. 27, 1892:

"... an alligator, 5 1/2 feet long, found frozen to death on a bank of the Rock River, near Janesville, Wisconsin...."

Four young crocodiles have been reported on different locations near Over-Norton, England.

(FIELD, Aug. 23, 1862; GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, August 1866)

As Charles Fort writes:

"...It seems to me that an existence that is capable of sending young butchers to medical schools, and young boilermakers to studios, would be capable of sending young crocodiles to Over-Norton, Oxfordshire, England. When I go on to think of what gets into the Houses of Congress, I expect to come upon data of mysterious distributions of cocoanuts in Greenland..."