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N A M E :
L A T I N M E A N I N G :
I D E N T I F I C A T I O N :
R A N G E A N D H A B I T A T :
N I C H E S :
B E N E F I T S :
O F F S P R I N G :
C O M P A R A B L E B E A S T S :
R A N G E M A P
THE SNOLIGOSTER.
(Dorsohastatus caudirotula.)
In the cypress swamps of the South, and particularly in the
region about Lake Okechobee, Florida, woodmen tell of a
strange and dangerous animal known as the snoligoster. This
creature is of enormous proportions and is credited with a
voracious appetite. Worst of all, its appetite is only appeased
by the eating of human beings. In form the snoligoster re-
sembles a huge crocodile, but it is covered with long, glossy fur
and has no legs or fins, except one long spike on its back. A
person naturally wonders how such an animal can manage to
travel through the water and mud of the swamp region where
it lives, but nature has provided it with a means for driving
itself along. On the end of its tail are three bony plates much
resembling the propeller on a steamboat. These revolve at a
terrific rate, driving the animal like a torpedo boat through
mud. They serve other purposes as well, for when a
snoligoster catches an unfortunate pickaninny, or even a full-
grown negro, upon which it delights to feed, it tosses the victim
up and backward so as to impale him upon the spike fin, where
several may be carried until sufficient for a meal have been
collected. The snoligoster's tail hen driven into the mud
and revolved until a hole is scooped out and the victims scraped
off the spike and tossed in, whereupon the snoligoster beats
them into batter with its rapidly revolving propeller and
inhales them.#######################################
Mr. Inman F. Eldredge, of De Funiak Springs, Flordia,
while hunting for an outlaw negro in the swamps, had a most
unusual experience. He caught sight of the negro, dead and
impaled upon what at first appeared to be a slender cypress
knee, but which presently began to move away. It was then
seen to be the spike on a snoligoster's back. Eldredge's first
impulse was to shoot the strange beast, but upon second
thought he concluded that it was doing a good work and was
entitled to live on. The very report of such a creature inhabit-
ing the swamps would deter evil-doers from venturing into
these wild places to avoid their pursuers and escape justice.
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