The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-18

restraint vanished. He told yarns that would
surprise some Of the folks up in the Maine
~backwoods who tol! bear stories; u Is a shame
in Venezuela the Christiansens speak Spanish.
fat.bo,tomed skins. Each takes a skin WITH a
native in the stern to scull 1t. The hunter in the
front OF his hat. and no keeps constantly playing
the light over the surface OF the water. In his
right band he holds a ;toSessl.1 Ss,, Mip ,So sts
S;lsa,, biz l sna hand sns.s he slg Ws.,s to his , eSa,m a. flor for
them. When the hunter stands directly over
down dns a. at the beasts head. back q the s eyes.
and fires. Then. quick as a flash, he
S %i9B t W RehI gan ape Catches ssts' tSe alligator aIo1 before a4or:
1t sinks. as 1t will do Immediately. Il dead. Once
the alligator gI. Ssts under the an mtd i Is gone for
get "a gator OF more than twelve feet into the
skifs. The great difficulty on the orinoco. tho
hunters say. Is that the alliRators there are too
large. The hunters get no more for a skin seven
teen feet long than ( it were seven feet long; 1t
more than seven feet in length. But the average
gator on the Orinoco is fourteen feet long.
mt rh .nr 6iaFs ni1e oss 'h 1sy,. ever ia S Si?lea' d they r SAY;
sious nearly swampcd two skifs. The alligator
contortions at such times are only to be COM
pared TO the antics, OF the football dog at Bar
nun &. NnTlbtldn SUpl one tlRulctn-IUOI GATOR
one time near a native village. and was en-
barrasscd by having the entire population come
out and greet him hi sn ai pI6Iie ,osd IA He
comprising three men. one a soldier fully armed,
two women. and three children. had boon turned
Which 1pbH hi ibis sal alligator roasted. The %allisapt D,rt siid
off into the water. and no man ever saw tho
boats occupants alive again. After Christian
shot the alligator he said the natives " rip him
open-had big funeral"
The brothers had ono valued assistant named
pil Skaet- After drinking much of the uAtiya
intoxicant. he disappeared, one night and was
tho gators. Quite properly 1t seemed for n week
brute that lay AROUND, on the bank with a great
po o,t mortem eHamination. The hump was
caused by the skull q q bullock, says tho vera,
was also the skull Of "A calf and incidentally that
s &c re, ss% s$isi'a 'si a ' ISs sa s5s !, 'f BIZ s ssss9 EeS TSls
srew's about andlns himself in . school Of ALI:
an attempt to tip the boat over. Their catch
last year in four months hunting was 9.4O0
skins. This was most unsatisfactory to them.
Their highest Kill in one night was seventy,one.
@nX be- sFin ,neS Ssi, qei the al heat man of the IN a ne e,fn aa as
Monkeys they catch IN infancy, after killing
the parents. Their monkey stories would need
il is, they say. eight inches long, and is far moro
horrible; caribee. they say, Is wild for blood; once
II has been tasted, this strange, ferco iish will
gnaw holes in the bottom OF a canoe to get at
the victim, whom L then tears TO pieces mouth;
the other natural history phenomena above de-
scrihed the gentle reader is referred to the
brothers Christensen.
or the orchids, which are so plentiful on the
OrinOco, the Christlansens know little. II they
did, they say, they would be much richer. For
n French collector who passed them on tho
upper river last yenr told them that he had sont
I 900 cHRcA OF orchids tn France In ono season
and had 400 cases toward another shipment;
also that he had received 4. 900 francs for a single
orchid. The boats and canoes on the river are
often decorated with tho bark of trees peeled Oft
with the orchids covering II. Many boats deckod
out thus seemed like tremendous single bios
SONS drifting with the current.