Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1876 — Alligator-Hunting. [ARTICLE]

Alligator-Hunting.

Alligator-steak being a choice delicacy in the lean larder of the South American Indian, the hideous saurian is hunted with zest for the pleasure of the sport and the food it will bring. The common method ot capturing the monster on the Madeira and the Amazon, as described by Mr. Keller, is with a simple pole and sling. strong loop of rqwhide fastened to the end of a long rod furnishes the Indian with his'sole weapon, and, seizing this, he creeps through the shallow water near the shore and slowly nears his intended prey. The logy alligator regards the approaching enemy with apathy, making no movement indicative ot life saving an occasional lazy flap of the tail. It holds the apparition of the redskin steadily in its eye, but with a dull, unsuspicious curiosity. As the fatal sling draws nearer and. more near it continues its motionless stare, as if under fascination, until suddenly the noose is over its head and slipped tight with a dexterous jerk. Now the Indians hitherto waiting on tlie shore rush to the help of their companion, and, seizing the pole, drag toe ugly monster to the land. The struggles of the brute are furious, and it lashes the sand with its powerful tail and shows the jagged rows of its cruel teeth; but, when safely landed, a few vigorous strokes of the ax on die skull and the tail prove an effectual quietus. “ If,” says Mr. Keller, from whom we borrow these incidents, “ the alligator were only to rush forward boldly to the attack of the Indians, they would, of a certainty, leave pole and sling and run for their lives; but this bright idea never seems to occur to toe uncouth animal, and the strife always ends in death.” The first movement made with the hunter’s knife is to cut out the four m uskglands that lie in pairs, one under the jaw of the alligator, and one on the underside of the body near the beginning of the tail. These glands are about an inch and a half long and as thick as a finger, and art filled with a greasy, brown liquid of a penetrating odor. Left in the body but a few moments after death, they ruin the flesh by diffusing through it their offensive taint. » - ■