The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-02-10
ABOUT ALLIGATORS.
Their Habits and How They Are
Hunted in Swamps.
Naturally Timid, Sometimes They Be
come Ferooious 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 in 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 a dozen, provision their
boats for a weeks or 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 a locality that previously con-
tanned from ten to fifty gators will at
the close of 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 APP
proach for 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. l doubt if such a one
exists: twelve feet is 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 Tor the last
twenty years.
The part of the skin used for com
mercial purposes is cut from 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 a rife 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 viii glance of
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 a rule they eonfne 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
once tasted human flesh they prefer it
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 nay pleasure in the winter OF
'S7-8S, together with a 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
ticularly numerous, and their roarings
and bellowings could be heard on stu
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 foI
some time and extended a cordial invi
tation to join them in the chase,
Thcre are two modes Of alligator
hunting. First. and best of all, is fire
lighting or fro-jacking; second, 10y
floating in the daytime. For the first
a strong reflector light is placed in the
bow of the boat and provided with &
dark slide or door; the man who is tC
shoot for the evening sits directly be
hind it, while his companions prope
the boat
The light, flashing full in the ami
maPs face, appears to blind him anC
make him insensible 10 all danger, bu
the slightest soond proceeding from
the boat Is sufficient to arouse him
Nearer and nearer the boat creepi
until the distance is a minimum, wheI
the riAeman, taking a careful aim
pours a murderons discharge into til,
most available part Of his body.
Those killed at night are pulled on
on the beach and skinned the follow
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 0
a sleeping gator by day. II is diff
cult thing 70 no, and on the whole
unremunerative. II Is usually prao