The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-02-27
ABOUT ALLIGATORS.
Their Habits and How They Are
Hunted in Swamps.
Naturally Timid, Sometimes They Be
come Ferocious Man Eaters-One
Nights Work in Which
Five Were Killed.

So great has been the demand of
fashion of late years for alligator skins
that il some parts of the south the
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 a weeks or a months trip
and seek the wilder and more secluded
streams and bayous.
So thorough are such hunts and so
crafty and cunning are the hunters
that 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 near enough APP,
proach for a shot.
This mode of systematic hunting has
had 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
them may prove interesting.
To begin with, stories of alligators
measuring fourteen and sixteen feet in
length may safely be put down as ex-
aggerations | doubt if such a one
exists: twelve feet is tremendous size;
and rarely, very rarely, they run to
twelve and half
1 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 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
mercial 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 inn
pervious to 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 a metal plate.
Although denizens of the water, they
have the most abject horror of rain,
and no sooner does the first faint
sprinkling manifest itself than, plung-
ing from the bank or log, they 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 rule they confne themselves to
what nature has provided for food, oc-
casionally varying their diet with
stray deer or calf, but at times they
become man-eaters and are then
terrors to all. Like the tiger, having
once tasted human flesh, they prefer it
to everything else, and with watclful
eye envy all who come within reach.
At times the community organizes
and institutes regular siege, which
sooner or later ends in capture,
1t was my pleasure in the winter of
'87-SS, together with q 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 sluggish |
little creek beneath group of pal
mettos a mile or more from the river,
and for some weeks past had been in
yestlgating the bird life of the sur
rounding region. Alligators were par
ticularly numerous, and their roarings
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 a 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 cordial invi- |
tation to join them in the chase.
There are Two modes of alligator !
hunting, First, and best of ell, is fire. /
lighting or re-jaclling; second, by
floating in the daytime For the first
a strong reflector light is placed in the
bow of the boat and provided with a
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