Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-07-14

simply dives his trap IN among the fish
he is mudding for and scoops them out
The third hsh to appear from the thick
ening depths is the broad-sided sunfish
or Dream, and later on the snout of the
great swamp-lake sucker may be seen
protruding above the surface This Is
all of itself the sucker finds necessary
to expose out of water, and stranger
70 the sport would fail to detect in
those protuberances the sign of fish be-
low them They resemble big air bub-
bles
After continuous mudding of the
water for some minutes IL becomes so
| thick that the fish turn on their sides
and gasp for breath The genuine
sportsman then calls halt, and moves
at once with his aids to another part of
the lake to raid that IN the same way.
The basket-and-net fishermen regard
this stage OF the mudding as their best
opportunity, and they remain to scoop
up the gasping fish as long as any come
to the top. Soft shell turtles are caught
with hook and line, with bait
These curious swampS are thickly
inhabited by beaver, mink and otter, but
their fur is worthless The beavers
alone by their dams ipundate large
tracts OF land. and they do immense
damage to the corn, cane and cotton
crops The inevitable alligator is there
in abundance also, and grows to an i'm
mense size It is q favorite pastine of
the youngsters OF the swamp and bayou
regions TO go alligator nesting. The
alligator pick out spot on the shore
where she may build her nest. and ct
may be counted on to a certainty that
over the spot she selects there viii be
no spring or summer inundation- Her
nest looks like an immense brush heap
or pile of drift She crawls under the
pile she has made and when she comes
out she will have left from forty to sixty
eggs under the brush As every one of
these viii surely hatch an alligator if
undisturbed, the number of saurians in
these low swamp lands is not to be
wondered at The female. alligator
never goes far from her nest until her
young are Matched. but stands guard
over it
THE way the boys get at the alliga-
tors eggs is this: They know that the
nesting alligator Will not attack or
chase them unless they approach near
her nest Half a dozen ~boys usually
make up a nest-robbing party. They
/ carry big bag along with them
| When they discover an alligator's nest a
couple of the boys get as near to it as
they can and hide. The rest go on
beyond 1T some distance, and then turn
and come back directly toward the nest
where the old alligator is on guard
She soon sees them coming, faces them
and advances few yards, stops. and
blows herself up like gigantic toad fish,
| When she does that the boys go no
nearer, but dance and caper about at
| that safe distance As long as they
remain there the old alligator viii not
take her watchful eyes off of them
While thus intent on the boys in front
OF her she neither knows, sees nor hears
anything that is going on behind her, 50
the two boys who hide themselves steal
up to the nest, break into it from the
rear, quickly remove the eggs and bag
them, and creep away again They
! then signal the others, who leave the
deceived old alligator and rejoin their
companions The party makes off with
its booty, and there Will be at least that
many alligators less in those parts that
season N. Y. Sun.