The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-14
LOUISIANA BULLFROGS.
HOW THEY ARE SHOT. OR SPARED,
on LAKE COCODRIE.

Gntors-The Negroes Kin Them, Al
though They Arc Harmless.
From the New York sun.
Cheneyvnle, La, June 1.-The close sea-
son is on through ell the Louisiana low
lands Geese, swan. brant, ducks, suipe,
and woodcock have gone North to the
nesting grounds. The hen quail are on
the nests. The deer Craze uudsturbed in
swamp and pineland. Until the young
doves are on the wing in July, only the
bun bat as he circles high In the dusk
will check a shapeless mass in the air az
the crack Of the double-barreL Folks
down here, who must have a breath of
the open and the pursuit of wild things
that men call sport, or they die, have
turned 10 fishing. The waters are thick
with perch and bass. catfish and casper
goo" Then there is the frog, the bullfrog,
the fellow of tremendous leap and fat
thighs and Myron Whitney voice This is
his home and he is ripe. His mighty notes
roll upon the dark of night. The swamps
are vocal with him. Every little pond of
the fields holds two or more of him. He
sings to the sailing summer moon from
the clear creeks that run between the
pine-clad hills. His deep "Er-rumph!
Er-r-r-rumph?' answers the bittern's
boom. He is good eating and good fun.
Deep bosomed in the heart Of the woods
lies Lake Cocodrie, fifteen miles north
west 1t is fed by rushing streams from
the hills and mysterious interior springs.
Its waters five feet below the surface,
are icy cold, and they are beautifully
clear. 1t is thirty miles long, and from a
mile to five miles in width. Long arms
that are like rivers run from 1t into the
forest land. No farms are along its
banks. The land about it is poor and
rough. The nearest home Is five miles
away 1t has few visitors, because al
though 1t is a wonder as a fishing place,
1t Is known to few. The Cocodrie country
is one of the few sections of the country
that has never heard the shrek of the
locomotive or seen the puff of the steam
boat It is far from morning papers and
telegraphs In the soundless swooning
moons of summer, even the voices of the
birds about it are hushed. Save for the
raucous below Of the alligator. whom no
heat can silence, the gross darkness Of the
inner sepulchre is not more deadly still
Funeral Spanish moss hangs i'm giant
clusters from the trees, like the long gray
boards of venerable men, and wags slowly
In the faint breezes. Cypress knees hard
and cruel, just close to the surface here
and there, ready to lame a horse or wreck
boat or kill a diver. So clear and de-
cepuve Is the water that il takes an old
hand to judge the depth correctly
There Is periodical ebb and flow in
Lake Cocodrle, whose cause is not known
The waters viii sink five feet in q week
and remain stationary for two weeks
Tssc eli rrrIrr lrrA a.
former level, and again remain stationary
from ten to fourteen days. This seems to
be Independent of local rains and floods
from the hills. At the low stage the fish
ing for white perch is phenomenal. These
nsh will average twelve inches in length
by six in width, and two pounds weight
They are fished for with small hand lines
dropped over the edge of a boat to depth
of twenty to twenty-five feet, and when
brought up are very cold to the touch
They bite voracjously at earthworms or
mlnnows, and, in good times, il is entirely
possible for two men 10 load a skiff with
them i'm days fishing. There is not much
sport about Il, as the perch, though game
and willing to fight, has little opportunity
but the fisherman Is kent busy. Where
the creeks, clear and swift, debouch from
the pine woods into the lake there Is
black bass fishing of the first class. The
casts are made with flies or red-sided min
nows from boat, and the fish are pug
uacious anti strong, running sometimes as
nigh as seven pounds weight. A black
bass of four pounds. whose lifelong hab-
Its has been cold water will make things
Interesting to man with an eight-ounce
rod whose feet are planted in a narrow
rocking punt, although it is a habit of
Northerners to decry a Southern bass as
anterior in game. Charles Weems once es-
fablished record of black bass. At the
mn Of l. L. 1on
IN three hours with road and reel His
catch numbered forty-one.
In Cocodrie Lake there are, conserva-
lively calculated, 1873, COO alligators They
have multiplied in peace, since no one has
taken the trouble to shoot them for their
skins. Some of the males are twelve feet
in length, and no man knows how old
they are. Aged negroes pretend to identify
certain individuals among them and to
have known of them for sixty years. 1t is
a certainty that, when let alone, the sau-
Tian Is a long-lived beast. More of them
die from wounds received in personal COM
bat than from any other cause. They are
death on pigs, wild fowl, fish and dogs
but do not attack adult human beings in
the water or out of 1t. Allgators are
credited with passionate fondness for
negro babies, but this is due to the negros
childish fear of them, an inheritance de-
seconded to him from Africa where the an
ceStorS We're gODDled by crocodileS.
The only method of hunting deer in Cen
trail Louisiana is with pack hounds, and
local hunters long ago gave up the Coo
odrie region. Deer are plentiful along the
lake, but when started, Invariably cross
one of the arms, which win average a
quarter of a mile in width. The hounds
follow them, and I'm the passage one or
more of them is certain to be dragged I'M
der by the alligators' iron jaw. Two-thirds
of pack Of twelve have been lost in one
season in this way. Negroes kill alligat-
ors as a matter of race hatred and they
go about Il in this way. Armed with axes.
ten or twenty of them go TO the lakes edge
at night leading one of the NANCY rabbit
dogs. They tie him to a tree near the wa
ter and leave him. The dog. who under
stands the business as wen as they. OBJ
jects strongly to be used as bait, and bowls
in an extremity of terror. When his
howls change to a note of pain, his own
ers rush forward and surround the alli-
gator keeping away from the strokes Of
his tail. They all bear torches which
serves tosblind him and WELD their axes
with one hand. AS they dance about. vel
ling and striking at him. some times
reaching him, but more often not thew
make a savage picture. When the sauria n
is slain he Is hacked in pieces and his head
& ~ a. frsaf 44faI 4ftafr r.