THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 29 



Louisiana, and the marshes, ponds and considerable lakes 

 became dry. During this prolonged drought many alli- 

 gators were forced to leave their dens and make new ones 

 where they could find water. In early September, 1926, 

 one of my men trailed a very large alligator for a couple of 

 miles through the dry swamp east of Avery Island, and 

 found where it had gone into a small pool on the edge of 

 the swamp that was kept filled with water by the tides. My 

 men always report to me any extra large alligator they 

 happen to see; and because of the description of this one, 

 which the man said was very large and only partly covered 

 by the water and mud in the pool, I went at once to investi- 

 gate. Before we got to the pool we heard a considerable 

 commotion of the water, and from the noise I surmised the 

 alligator was deepening the pool for its winter den. Proceed- 

 ing very quietly to a point from which the water was visible 

 through the underbrush, I could see the back and tail of a 

 very large alligator whose head was hidden under the bank, 

 and whose tail was strongly sweeping from side to side. This 

 little pond was not more than twenty-five feet across and 

 about eighty feet long, and was completely surrounded by 

 trees and had in it not more than ten inches of water. The al- 

 ligator had not had time to be at work for more than three 

 hours, as it had freshly arrived at the pond, and had not 

 done any work when seen by my man earlier in the day, but 

 when I arrived it had already cleared the mud and trash 

 from a space about twelve feet wide by fourteen feet long, 

 and had made it at least twelve inches deeper than the rest 

 of the pond, sweeping the soft material and fallen branches 

 from the bottom of the pool into considerable flats to each 

 side of where it was working, and had torn a hole under 

 the bank at least two feet back. Although this alligator 

 was very large, between thirteen and fourteen feet long, it 

 was very poor, and I thought it would be better to leave it 

 in its natural den all Winter and get it in the Spring, so we 

 sat there and watched it work. In excavating under the 



