The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-02-24


ing the operation with curious eyes.
Better git shut O. dat ah gatah, shuah, p
said he, twill he done gone dead.'
"Oh, good Lord!7 exclaimed the Judge ;
'hes been dead an hour If he was alive
do you reckon he'd allow Us to drive q
stake through him ~
NO gatah am dead till de sun am gone
down. the darkey observed.
The Judge laughed and passed me the
knife. inserted the blade in bullet hole
near the shoulder and cut q cash in the
flesh and followed the trend of the dia-
mOnd shaped scales beneath the skin.
Judge EmmOns stood near the monsters
tail. The knife penetrated the qUivering
flesh and was stained with blood. As quick
as q flash the tail shot from the water, and
the Judge was knocked fully ten feet.
The reptile raised its head, stake and all,
and sailed out into the lake like a sub
marine battery. Judge EmmOns lost his
glasses, but was, fortunately, unhUrt. The
incident, however, convinced him that it
was dangerous tOfOol with Il dead alligator
until after sun-dOWn.
In the winter of 1870 I was encamped
in the great TurnbuII swamp, ninety miles
south Of st. Augustine, hunting deer, bears.
wild cats, cougars, and wild turkeys. There
was a great drOUth, and the savannas and
sWamps were dry. Scores Of alIigatOrs pa
raded the dry savannas in search Of water.
One day Capt Frank Sans and Tom Muir
ray, two well-knOwn guides, rode past the
encampment. They were looking for sour
orange stubs, with the intention of trans
planting and grating them. A hundred
yards from camp they reined in their
horses ON a burnt savanna, and began to
shout. Snatching a dOUble-barreled gun,
1 ran out ON the savanna. Their horses
were prancing around an enormous bull
alligator, who had crawled out of the dry
swamp, and who was headed for the Hills
borough river. He was confused by the
shouts of the guides and the prancing of
their horses, and approached him unseen.
Stealing behind him, ran q long palmetto
splinter in his eye. He turned lumberingly
over the bllckened stubble, and the guides
struck at him with cow hides. Driven to
warinoss, he crOuched close the ground,
pulled out his throat, opened his CavernOus
mouth, and made q noise like the rushing
of wind. A moment afterWard / dis
charged load of buckshOt into each eye.
The monster shuddered and stretched him
self III the agOnies of death. Capt Sans
dismOunted and buried his ax in the rep
tiles tail. The yertebra was severed, and
he was no longer dangerous, although there
was still life in the tail. 1t moved slowly,
and Uneasily, like the tail Of a wounded
snake, and the guides declared that it
would not die until the setting Of the sun.
At intervals the cayman rOaTed like a Cen
tral Park lion. Toward night went to
the swamp to mark the TOOsts of wild tur-
keys. The day was Oppressively hot. 1
was returning toward camplOng after dark,
when 1 found myself upon the burnt sa-
wanna To my surprise the whole savanna
seemed alive and moving. Nearly worn
out with exhaustion, I fancied that my
head was Teeling, a sure sign of malarial
fever. The phenomenon was quickly eX-
planned. A thousand buzZards were in the
camp near the great alligator, waiting the
light of day to secure their prey. A year
altcrWard 1 found the skeleton Of this sau-
rian, and knocked out its teeth. The sa-
wanna was then covered with water foot
deep.
In the following winter L was shooting
planned herOns on the great savannas at
the head Of Indian river. My guide was
the well-knOwn Judge COnnOr, once
Methodist clergyman. One morning while
riding over the vast prairie on horseback,
we met an alligator longer than the moral
law. Shoot him" " said the Judge.
"Oh, no, replied; Il dOn'twant to kill
him. The report Of the gun will scare
every heron within q mile, and I shall get
no plume"
But, Lord blast my buttons said the
Judge, "he eats my hogs and young calves
ON the range. Shoot him."
NO" I answered, Il have come twenty
miles for plumes, and I don't intend to 90
back without them"
well" said Conner, you're the first
Yankee I ever saw who won't pull a trig-
ger on a gator"
''I'lI take a look at him anyhow" said,
as I hitched my horse to a palmetto mid
way between two creeks. The grass was
high and rank As walked toward Jhe
reptile he raised himself on his four legs,
opened his jaws, pufIed out his throat like
a bulIfrOg, and made a noise like the hum
ming of q buzz-saw. L stopped ten feet
away and stamped and shouted. The
Judge sat upon his horse watching the pro-
ccedings. The alligator did not quail. On
the contrary, he sQuailed close to the
ground, and began to creep toward meas
a cat would creep toward a mouse. Walk
ing back to the palmetto, gathered five
or six of its huge dried fans, held them
toward my body, struck match and set
them ablaze. The ugly monster watched 4
me like q dragon. 1 held the fans down
hiding the blaze, and marched toward him.
His huge mouth was open, and looked like
q newly bricked tunnel Within reach, /
suddenly raised the fans and thrust the
blazing mass in his throat. He closed his |
ponderous jaws, turned pale, and ran.
Lighting q fresh fan, 1 ran around him, set
ting the coarse, dry grass Of the savanna on [
fire. Hewas cncircled with flames. He rails
ed his body gazed at the fire with blOOdshOt
eyes, and then shufled himself into the
wet sand, and calmly awaited the result. |
There was q fair breeze from the northeast. |
In three minutes the fire had swept over
him, burying him in the blackened grass. |
He remained as he had planted himself
went through the smoke and reached
him with the barrels Of the gun, but he
did not move He seemed to dOZe; pos
siblv he had tainted. I TemOunted the
horse, and we rode of. A hundred yards
away we looked back The monster had
recovered. and was travelling leisurely over
the smoking savanna toward a little stream
that pOurs into the head of Indian river.
Two years before this I had visited Lake
Worth, twelve miles below Jupiter light
At that time Charles Moore, q jolly beach .
cOmber, was the only person living on the
shore of the lake. We went through an
arm of the everglades, and deposited our
camp equipage and provisions on the hard
iand at the northeast end of the lake. The
sand was fringed with huge Tushes. We
had hauled our boat over the strip Of sand
the waters of the lake from tho
everglades, intending to run down to
NIOOre's cabin before sundOWn. The wind,
however, died away, and we concluded to
camp for the night. We found cleared
spot in the scrub a hundred feet back from
the shore. Ridge poles and crOtched posts
indicated that it was q flYOrite camping