San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-07-05
FLORIDA ALLIGATORS.
six T1eusanS or the Reptiles Sold Annually
Their Uses and Their Cspture-The Profits.

James Otis. in the Continental
Six thousand baby alligators are
sold in Florida every year, and the
amount of ivory, number Of skins and
quantity of oil obtained from the old
er members of the saurian family are
sufficient to entitle them to a high
place among the products of the state.
The hunter sells young gators"
at $25 per hundred, and the dealer at
from rs cents to 81 each. Live ALI
gators two years old represent to the
captor 80 cents each, and to the deal.
er from So to SIS, as the season OF
travel is at its height or far advanced.
A ten-foot alligator is worth $40 and
one fourteen feet long $25 to the hunt
er, while the dealer charges twice or
three times that price. The eggs are
worth to the hunter so cents per doz-
en- and to the dealer rs cents apiece.
The wages of the hunter depend, of
course, upon his good fortune in find
ing the game. One of the most ex-
pert of these gives as instances of sue.
cessful hunts the items of three days
work which yielded $s9.75; of six
days, with a yield of 5000, and of
eight days hunting, whichnetted $4O.-
rs.
Without speaking of these enemies
of the gator" who hunt him for
sport, there are about 200 men in the
state of Florida who make business,
and try to make a living by capturing
or killing him. Very many have eat
en- alligator steak from simple curios-
ity to learn it's flavor, but many more
eat it because it is the cheapest and
oftentimes the only meat they can af-
ford. The flavor when it is fried or
broiled is that of beefstake. plentfiully
supplied with fish gravy, while the
fore legs roasted taste like mixture
of chicken and fish, and have a deli
cate fiber.
Very methodical in his habits is the
alligator and very suspicious of any,
thing new around his home. When
he starts out in search of food it is
invariably an hour after the tide has
begun to ebb, and he returns about
four hours after low water. If he has
a land journey to perform he goes and
comes by the same route, never devi-
ating from it until he sees evidence
that strangers have trespassed on his
domain.
He lives on the bank of some stream,
for he has a decided objection to stag
nant water, and to make his home he
digs hole at least ~ inches below
the level of the water. The hole is
perfectly straight, although on an in
cline, and from twenty to thirty feet
in length, terminating III chamber
sufficiently large to admit of his turn
ing in it. There he or she dwells
alone, save when the female is caring
for her young brood, in which case
the one room is converted in q nurs-
cry. Fell-grown alligators not only
do not occupy the same hole, but
will not live near each other.
The alligator usually lays her eggs
about the first of July, and during the
month of June she is busily engaged
in preparing the cradle for her young.
place on the bank of some
stream or creek, she begins work by
beating hard and level with her tail
an earth platform about six feet square.
She scrapes together with her fore
foot, oftentimes from a distance of
fifty yards from the proposed nest,
dried grass, sticks and mud until
fifteen or twenty cubic feet of the ma
teral is in a place convenient for her
purpose. On the day following the
completion of these preparations she
lays from thirty to fifty eggs on the
prepared ground, and piles over them
dried grass and mud deity worked in
with sticks until mound six feet in
diameter and three feet high has been
raised. The surface of this is quickly
hardened by the sun, and in order
that it may be as nearly alright as
possible the female visits it each day,
covering with mud any crevices that
may have appeared, as well assSre-
modelling such portions as do not
satisfy her sense of beauty.
The ordinary time of incubation is
about two months, and then the new
ly-hatched brood may be heard yelp-
ing and snarling for their mother to
continue her work by releasing them
from their prison nest. On the sec.
ond or third day after the first noise
has been heard the female bites
hole in the side of the mound, ont of