Crossword-Solution: RIVERMEN 8 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 13

Across the stream, almost from bank to bank, a string of gravel flats made a barrier that all the rivermen feared.

There followed a sort of reception in the hotel lobby, after which Bixby took him across to the rooms of the Pilots Association, where the rivermen gathered in force to celebrate his return.

The rivermen who filled the pit received him, it is related, with "a prolonged whoop, or howl, such as Indians give when they are especially pleased." And to these sturdy men the words of his song made a strong appeal: We are a hardy, freeborn race, Each man to fear a stranger; Whate'er the game, we join in chase, Despising toil and danger; And if a daring foe annoys, No matter what his force is, We'll show him that Kentucky boys Are Alligator-horses.

The title "alligator-horse," of which Western rivermen were very proud, carried with it a suggestion of amphibious strength that made it both apt and figuratively accurate.

Their roistering exploits, indeed, have made these rivermen almost better known at play than at work.