Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-01-18
AIIigatOrs.
From Lippincott's Magazine.

Just imagine black, slimy-looking
lizard, from ten to twenty feet long,
and you have him exactly. A dirtier,
nastier-looking creature can be seen
nowhere. He is odoriferous too-the
wrong way. Where they are often
hunted and much shot at, alligators
become very timid and shy, and avoid
men instinctively. In wilder parts of
and troublesome.
AS they crowd the banks of the rivers
travellers have fine sport shooting them,
and even boast of killing a good many;
indeed, to hear the accounts of the
cockneys when they come down the
ST. Johns river, you would expect to
find the stream covered with floating
carcasses of dead 'iga'tors. But in
truth, the creature is very hard to kill
in three days journey on the st. Johns
I saw some three hundred shots fred,
and only one alligator killed, outright.
He was struck in the eye; hisVbrain was
penetrated, and he lay like a log. An
other was made very sick by ball in
the neck, and has had a stiff neck ever
since
They are not sociable creatures; I
have seen hundreds, and never two of
them together. Each one of the big
fellows will have his own stretch of
river-shore or his own side of a pond,
or the whole of it, if small one, and
allow no intrusion by others of his
kind. I have often heard the negro
steersman call out, "Get your guns;
dar's de place were de big gator lives"
ho no oh
monarch of all he surveyed. Alliga-
tors are tenacious of their rights of
ownership. IF another trespasses,
there is big fight, generally ending
by the stronger eating the weaker.
The female piles up in the swamp a
mass of mud and leaves for nest, that
the suns heat may hatch her eggs She
is then peculiarly savage, and will at
tack anything. A friend of mine found
one of these nests, and standing on it,
employed himself in raking out the
eggs and throwing them against tree,
much to the detriment of the young,
unmatched alligators, who had not been
consulted. There was another party,
however, who thought that she had a
right to an opinion in the matter, and
that was the female alligator. A rustic
in the bushes, a rush, and then big
pair of jaws belonging to an eighteen
footer, were heard swapping between
his legs. She was so mad that she
missed her aim.
Ny friend is slow mani never
saw him even walk fast-but on this oc-
casion he did not wait to apologize:
there was then exhibited some of the
tallest jumping, t11mbling and running
ever seen in Florida, or anywhere else.
The female will not allow the male to
approach her nest. He has a glutt m
GUS habit of eating all the eggs, thus
necessitating her laying more, which
she does not like to do. So, whenever
she catches him in that neighborhood
she thrashes him on general princi pies
he either has done mischief or intends
it: at any rate. he is meddling in do
nestle matters and deserves snubbing.
I am told that it is really amusing to
see the big bully stick his tail between
his legs and sneak off, the very image
of a hen-pecked husband, after one of
these conjugal seedlings. He is not by
any means model husband; and, al
though he takes his thrashing kindly,
he revenges himself by watching until
the eggs are really Matched, and then
eats up as many of the causes of the
family dispute as he can catch Young
alligators don't like to know their own
father
[ heard of but few instances where
these creatures have attacked grown
men. They are fond of children, and
show their attachment to the offspring
of other people as they do to their own.
In one instance, where man on horse
back was crossing ford, he was seized
by the leg, but when his dog plunged
in, the alligator left his leg to take the
more delicate morsel In another in
stance, an alligator struck at a mule
pulling at cart, and bit out two spokes
from one of the wheels, leaving
a tooth sticking in one as a
memento of the visit. He hurried
off with great speed, on the lookout, I
suppose, for dentist.
Gators like dogs, pigs, and young
darkies. The dog is a special favorite.
The whine of an alligator is easily mis-
taken for that of puppy, and may
mislead a young and inexperienced
dog. A wise Florida dog Will not go
boldly down to the water to drink; he
learns by experience after having been
eaten once or twice. If the shore is
open, he will draw all the aigators to
one place by barking, and then
scamper off to some other place where
the coast is clear; or he will creep
down to a moist spot, tail down, body
crouched, eyes skinned and ears up,
pushing his paws before him slowly to
feel the water, tapping it without noise,
and then sneaking away again.
The alligator has his uses; near every
house you find more or less swamp,
and in every swamp more or less alliga-
tor. / heard one lady complain very
much because some traveller had killed
her alligator. He lived near, and killed
snakes, frogs, young wildcats and other
varmints; thus he earned his board,
and was consequently protected be-
sides this, he was useful in preventing
young children flom straying too far
from home. ----
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