The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-07-25

tall pole in front of the Indian ga
tor camp was losing itself in the
distance there was a splash in the
canal ahead of the canoeists, and a
moment later the ugly snout of a
saurian was raised above the water,
three or four yards from where the
gator had slid into the stream from
the bank
A small rifle was brought into play.
Their was a sharp crack and the bull
let glanced from the head of the game
and went humming off across the
waste of the prairie.
"Shoot 'em in the eye or just back
of the mouth, in the neck, if you
want to kill EN- and the guide
chuckled. Hide just like sheet iron
unless you find right place"
Off in the distance at the edge of
the canal, flew bright red hand
kerchief, or rather what had once
been a handkerchief. 1t marked the
camp of two white men who make
business of hunting gators. Jim
and Jack are the only names. to
which these men answer. If they
ever had any other names they have
forgotten them. They have never
been out of the 'Glades in twenty
years, except to go to Fort Myers for
supplies, and are known all over
Southern Florida by the titles here
used.
Owing to the fact that the surface
of the Everglades is dead level
without a natural landmark of any
kind, it is necessary for the hunters
to mark their camp, so that it may
be seen by them from a distance.
This is done by flying flag or a
rag from the top of a pole from ten
to twenty feet in height. Even then,
at distance of a mile or even less
the flag looks as if it were close to
the ground. Without these artificial
landmarks it would be an easy matter
for gator hunter to get lost-and
he might never be heard of again.
Drawn up on the canal bank were
three boats, one of them, light, fiat
bottom scow, half filled with the skins
of alligators, packed in salt. Around
the camp.were scores of carcasses of
the reptiles, over which the buzzards
fought as they had fought at the
camp of Seminole Charlie. So nu-
merous and so daring were the birds
that it was difficult to move around
the place without kicking against one
of the fowl, all of which attempted
to dispute the right of the intruder
to pass.
The two other boats were small
skiffs, easily carried by man of
ordinary strength. They were the
boats used in travelling over the low
places in the 'Glades in search of
gators, which do not always expose
themselves on the banks of the ca
nal. In fact, the older and larger
reptiles, which have grown wary as
the hunters have more closely pur-
sued them, make their homes far
back from the stream, where they
wa,low and below in fancied secur-
ity.
Jim and Jack were just about as
communicative as was Seminole
Charlie. Tall, gaunt, Drowned and
unshaved, they presented a picture
not easily forgotten. With them
speech was almost as scarce as dia-
monds, and even when they did speak
it generally was only the word Eyes"
or mo" that they uttered.
For many months at stretch they,
in common with other gator hunters,
live alone in the 'Glades, far remov-
ed from human habitation, not seeing
a white man once a month. They
grow quiet, apparently sullen, and
have little to say. News of the out
side world interests them not bit
1T was all the same to them wheth-
er the passengers of the Titanic were
lost or rescued; as a matter of fact
they had not even heard of the ocean
disaster, nor had they heard anything
of the political contests now going on
throughout the United States.
A high power rifle, long steel rod
sharpened at one end and stout gaff,
larger and much stronger than the
gaff used by fishermen, constituted
the weapons of the gator hunters.
The hide of an alligator must not
be mutilated if it is to bring a dollar
or two to the hunters, and for that
reason there was not a spear in the
camp such as one Of the canoeists
had expected to see.
maybe so we can see 'em catch