Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-02-17


hunting of these animals forms quite a
profitable industry. Men band them
selves together in couples and in COM
panies of half dozen, provision their
boats for weeks or a months trim
and seek tho wilder and more secluded
streams and bayous
So thorough are such hunts and SO
crafty and cunning are the hunters
that a locality that previously con-
tanned from ten to fifty gators will at
the close of a hunt be either totally de-
populated, or at best, possess but one
or two cautious, wary old fellows that
are next to impossible to get view Of
TO say nothing of a near enough ap-
proach for "a shot
This mode of systematic hunting has
had a tendency to make the alligator
extremely rare in many sections of the
country and to forever drive them away
from some. They are queer, uncanny
brutes, and few facts In regard to
Thorn may prove interesting
To begin with, stories of alligators
measuring fourteen and sixteen feet in
length may safely be put down as ex-
aggerations. l doubt if such a one
exists: twelve feet is a tremendous size;
and rarely, very rarely, they run to
twelve and half.
have measured alligators innumer-
able, and fully ninety EIGHT per cent.
run from nine TO eleven and half
feet. So scarce is one attaining the
mythical fourteen feet that "a reward
of five hundred dollars for one of this
size has been unclaimed for the last
twenty years.
The part of the skin used for com
morcial purposes is cut from a line
along the side, just where the heavy
scales begin, and includes the sides
and belly, the back being so tough as
to be utterly worthless and almost i'm
pervious to n rifle ball.
In fact the two vulnerable points are
the eyes and just behind the fore leg,
while ball striking his coat of armor
In any but direct line will glance off
as If from metal plate.
Although denizens of the water, thew
have the most AFFECT horror of rain,
and no sooner does the first faint
sprinkling manifest itself than, plung-
lag {EeIa- tha-&ssssssss-as,,z seek,
dry quarters beneath the surface. On
warm, sunny days they bask on the
banks for yours, but even when cloudy
it is unusual to see one.
AS a rule they confine themselves to
what nature has provided for food, oc-
casionally varying their diet with a
stray deer or calf, but at times they
become man-eaters, and are then
,terrors to all. Like the tiger, having
ouoo 4aufa1 human Aaoh Aho,, -
to everything else, and with watchful
eye envy all who come within reach.
At times the community organizes
and institutes a regular siege, which
sooner or later ends in capture.
1t was my pleasure in the winter of
1878, together with friend, to be
more or less intimately associated with
a party of alligator hunters on the up
per St Johns river in Florida, and
upon one or two occasions to partici-
pate in some remarkable hunts.
We were encamped on a sluggish
little creek beneath a group of pal
mettos a mile or more from the river.
and for some weeks past had been in
vestlgating the bird life of the sur
rounding region. Alligators were par
rOarlQVS
and bellowings could be heard on still
nights from creeks and sloughs five
miles distant.
One dark night just as we were
about to turn in a bright light came
suddenly around the bend and boat
with three men. armed and equipped
for "'gator shootin'," pulled up to our
camp. They proved to be just out
from Voluria, and, an accident having
happened to their coffee can, they had
come up to borrow of us.
They informed us of their intention
of remaining in the neighborhood for
some time and extended a cordial invi-
tation to join them in the chase.
There are two modes of alligator
hunting. First and best of all, is fire.
lighting or fre-jacking; second, by
floating in the daytime, For the first
q strong reflector light is placed in the
bow of the boat and provided with n
dark slide or door; the man who is to
shoot for the evening sits directly be-
hind it, while his companions propel
the boat
The light, flashing full in the ami
mails face, appears to blind him and
make him insensible TO all danger, but
the slightest soond proceeding from
the boat Is sufficient to arouse him
Nearer and nearer the boat creeps
until the distance Is o minimum, when
the rifleman, taking careful aim,
pours u murderous discharge into the
most available part of his body.
Those killed at night are pulled out
1,a lii hn
ing day, while those killed in the day
time are usually skinned on the spot.
The second method of floating con-
.sists of stealing softly within range OF
sleeping gator by day. 1t is a diff
cult thing to no, and, on the whole,
unremunerative. 1t is usually prac-
ticed by local hunters, and very rarely
by professionals.
Our party tried the first method.
Stepping into the boat the light was
trimmed, the rifleman took his accus-
toned position in the bow and the
party started mile from camp the
stream videned out into a fiat marshy
prairie, l. I'D with small islands and
quantities OF Griftwood.
Turning the light full ahead an i'm
mense fellow was seen lying on a pile
of drift and intently watching the
steering apparatus. With gentle pad
ding the boat approached closer,
twenty feet, fifteen, ten-would the
man never shoot?
A fash, roar, and the great beast
dropped suddenly into the water, shot
through the heart. Instantly some
part of the body is grappled with the
boat hook to prevent its sinking for
ever, and with pulling and hauling it is
got ashore.
The next one shot was swimming at
= little distance. only bis eyes and