St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-04-25
HUNTING THE ALLIGAT TOR

river during their winter campaign
after saurians are said to have found
| alligators so numerous near the
| mouth of Lost Mans river this sea-
son that they were able to secure
! 1000 remarkable skins in less than
| three months. As hides are worth
from so cents to $1.5O each, these
men earned quite little fortune in a
regular business of killing alligators
leaving the faying to be done by
negroes. They work during the
night as rule, and use jack-lamps
or fire-pans. An alligator seems to
become dazed on seeing light on a
dark night and often stupidity awaits
the approach of slow-mOv1ng boat
until it is quite near, when the crouch
| ing hunter rises and plants a charge
of buckshot in the reptiles eyes, kill
| ing it instantly.
The saurian hunters usually work
in small parties numbering from two
to five, and carefully reconnoitre each
lake, river or swamp before entering
| it They generally know where to
search for their victims, and rarely
fail to slay them when they fire.
There is an absurd impression abroad
| that one must send a bullet under an
alligator's foreshoulder in order to
kill it properly. l have slain many,
but | have yet to see one that afford
ed a chance for a shot in that quar-
ter, as most of it's body except the
snout is submerged when swimming,
| $50 that person has to guess at the
position of the foreshoulder in the
water, and wait for the reptile to
| pass before he can fire at it with any
assurance of success. That would be
| too tedious and uncertain a method
| of killing the animals to make the
| business profitable, SO we find pro-
feSsiOnal hunters generally aim for
| the head, near the eyes, in hope OF
disabling them seriously enough to
prevent them from escaping in case
they do not kill outright The brain
is too small and too low down in
| the muzzle to make it worth while to
aim at that spot unless the animal IS
quite close, and for this reason hunt
| ers prefer to fire at the eyes. The
best method of capturing the saurl-
ans, when amusement only is wanted,
is to harpoon them, as they then roll
round on the water like barrel I'M
til they have wrapped all the line
| about their bodies and tied them
selves so securely to the bow of the
| boat that they never could release
themselves. An alligator is the only
creature that possesses this peculiar
| habit, and old hunters avail them
selves of it to get the animal near
their craft before despatching it with
axe or bullet. l have known an old
bull to roll himself up to the bow of
a skiff by means of the harpoon line
and try to get aboard to devOur the
| hunters. | have seen many species
of wild animals in a rage, but do not
recall one which displayed such ma
| levolent if not demoniacal fury as a
huge male alligator, which impotent-
| ly tore away at the bow of our boat
one time, and tried to get his mas
sive claws on the gunwale. SO soon
as he became exhausted we despatch
ed him with an axe, towed him
ashore, and took away his teeth and
hide as mementOes.
Small schOOners or gOOd-s1zed
| slOOps are now employed for captur-
ing alligators on the southern coast
of Florida. They have done fairly
well, but will do better as soon as
the crews acquire needed experience.
The Cuban crocodile is quite COM
mon in Florida, and as it is a much
stronger and fiercer creature than it's
congener, should not be surprised
to hear that some hunters had fallen
victims to its ferOcity. CrOcodiles
are much more marine in their hab1-
tat than alligators, spending most
of their time on the seashore, and
| thinking nothing of making a tri p to
| Cuba in the StOrmIeSt weather. The
schooner Little Tycoon captured sew
eral of these animals while searching
| for alligatOrs, and could have caught
many more were it not for muddy
water and the tempestuous weather.
| CrOcOdlles are quite abundant at
Lake Worth, New River Inlet, Miami
river and other streams empty1ng
into the Atlantic Ocean, and where
they cOngregate alligators are scarce
as the two species do not find close
companionship very congenial under
existing circumstances.
l have been trying to obtain sta
tistics that would give something
like an approximate estimate of the
number of saurians slaughtered an
nually in this state, and from all that
[ can learn it would be safe to place
it at between two and three hundred
| thousand, not counting those which
fall before the rifles of winter tour
lists Correspondence of the New
| Nnrl. E1.etniro Post