San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-07-05

in them are not more than five inches
long; at any other stays they will not
hatch II removed, and are of no value
except for the shell. The captured
eggs are then packed in straw as
nearly as possible in the natural way,
and the young may be thus Matched
out very successfully. One farmer
reared 1000 and another 1000 last
season. The young will eat immedi-
ately after coming out of the shell,
but they thrive best if given no food
| for at least three months.
Since, in order to guard his head,
the alligator is obliged to turn his
body somewhat, and since when his
laws are once closed he is unable to
open them if only a moderate amount
of strength on the part of man be
used, the hunter selects this point for
attack when it is possible for him to
steal upon his game unawares. If the
intending captor gets a firm holt upon
the jaws of his game in this way the
monster becomes reasonably easy
prey; one rope soon secures his jaws,
another is tied around his neck and
fastened to a tree, while third Sc
cures his. tail in the same way, thus
stretching the captive in straight
line; his fore paws are tied over his
back, stout pole is lashed from the
end of his snout to the tip of his tail,
and the 'gater is helpless.
1t is seldom, however, that the
hunter gets his game at disadvantage,
and to secure him alive he must set
about the work much as boys do when
they snare rabbits. A tall, stout sap
ling near the waters edge is tbs first
requisite, and directly in front of that,
in the water, a narrow lane or pen is
made with stakes, the two outer ones
being notched, as is the spindle of a
box trap. At the end of this pen and
nearer the shore stake is driven in
to the mud, and on the top of it is
fastened piece Of tainted beef. A
stout rope, at one end of which is a
large moose, is fastened to the top of
the sapllng, and to the upper part of
the moose is attached a ross-bar, or
trigger, which, when the tree is bent,
catches in the notches on the outer
stakes just below the surface of the
water, the moose hanging around the
entire opening. To get at the meat
the alligator attempts to swim under
the bar, but his back displaces the
trigger, and he is captive, with the
rope fastened just back of his fore
legs.
It is necessary to bind the captive
while he is in the water and then
carry him to shore in boat; for, am
phibious as he is, he can be drowned
if dragged even a short distance
through the water. When once
properly secured and on land the ALI
gator can do nothing in hope of ef-
fecting release, save to roll over, and
this he does by mighty effort with
his shoulders, frequently working
himself over quarter of a mile in a
single night.
If one believes implicitly the posi-
tive assertions of the alligator hunters
he must perforce say no man knows
the span of life allotted to these saul
rians. The native Floridian, as well
as the hunter, will insist that the
largest of the gators are more than
one hundred years old, pointing to the
fact of his slow growth as proof of the
assertion. A newly-hatched alligator
is eleven inches long; at the age of
years he is very slim and but three
feet in length; at 10 years of age he
has gained considerably in breadth
and but twelve inches in length, while
during the next two years he has
grown hardly more than one inch
longer. An alligator fifteen feet in
length, caught near the mouth of the
st. Johns River, was so covered with
barnacles and other marine growths
as to make it almost certain that he
must have been in existence seventy
five years.
Why He Married the Bachelor.