The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-04-11
JAMAICA CROCODILE HUNT,
me island ana ARord Excellent
Opportunities for sport

Opportunities for sport
One Of the best forms of sport to be
obtained in Jamaica is stalking and
shooting crocodiles. Perhaps it is not
quite SO exciting as fishing for sharks,
catching tarpon, or h~arpopning the
devilfsh-au Of which sports may also
be obtained in Jamaita-but it is far
more difficult and dangerous, calling
into play all the best qualities Of the
sportsman. There are a good many
c~rocodiles in the more distant reserves
5of Kingston harbor and at the mouth
Of the Jamaican riveH, but they are ex-
ceedingly war and a most cautious
approach is necessary if one wishes to
get close enough for an effective shot.
Just as the limo has his jackal and the
shark his pilot fish, SO the crocodile is
almost always accompanied by a small
plover, which perches upon the scaly
ridge of its back, and is just visible
above the filthy water in which its big
patron loves to walIoW, writes William
Thorp, in the Chicago Daily News
On the approach of man O any other
danger this tiny bird hutters into the
air and utters a shrill cry to warn its
t'chum." The crocodile dives, and you
may sit in your canoe and nurse your
rifle for an hour without a chance Of a
shot.
The jamaican crocodile is shyer Of
man than most of its kind. Often I
have spent the whole day rowing up
creeks and catching malaria in noisome
swamps without even getting within
aiming distance of the brutes. They
bury themselves in mud ON the APP
proach Of danger, and often when TAX
en- unawares, feign death in the hope
Of escape. Even if you do manage to
shoot one, the odds are thatit will sink
to the bottom of the river or creek IN
less you are very quick, and then it is
a terribly difficult business to fish it
up and get the skin. My best crocodile
was lost in that way. Icaught him on
the river bank toward evening, and got
a steady shot with Q SO Winchester.
The heavy bullet crashed through the
soft pouch surrounding his wicked lit
tie eye, and he died almost instantly;
but in his death agony he managed to
flop off the river bank into IL feet of
water, The negro boys tried to fish
him up, but it was quite impossible,
for he was a huge fellow, at least IS
feet long, and very heavy,
On the other hand, you may get a
fine crocodile when you least expect
it. ! remember once walking in the
lunatic asylum grounds on Kingston
harbor with one of the doctors, and
seeing a huge crocodile in the water
within a few feet of us. He had wan
dered ten miles from his usual habitat
through the salt waters of the harbor,
and was proving around the bathing
place attached to the asylum. Unlike
most ~crocodiles, he was not scared by
our approach, and we were able-tosend
for rifles and slay him with ease. He
measured over ten feet. On another
occasion some negro boys were bath
ing round the ordnance wharf in the
center ofthef commercial part of King
ston harbor, where the steamers are
coming and going continually, and a
crocodile suddenly appeared in the
midst of them. The boys dashed
ashore! and luckily none of them was
nipped. The sentry on duty at the
wharf shot the crocodile, sending a
Lee-Enfeld bullet clean through the
thick scales on the ridge of the back.
Pliny said that the c~rocodile's skin
"WiH abide any injury and not be
pierced" That may have been true in
his day, but it is not rue now. The
bullet of a heavy modern rife will
pierce the skin anywhere, unless it
strikes in a slanting direction. The
crocodile is not, as a rule, hard to kill,
provided one can get a good shot at it,
but that is just the trouble. 1t has not
the marvellous vitality of the shark,
which will sometimes struggle furious
ly for an hour, although covered with
apparently mortal wounds.