PREFACE 9 



and recognized them from year to year by some obvious 

 peculiarity. I remember most especially old "Monsurat," 

 easily recognized as the largest of our 'gator company, and 

 one we never took liberties with. Monsurat was killed in 

 the Fall of 1879 by our tutor fresh from Harvard, and 

 hauled in triumph behind a four-mule cart to the house, and 

 I remember seeing my father measure him eighteen feet, 

 three inches, and hearing him say it was the largest 

 alligator he had ever seen. 



All this familiarity with alligators in my childhood did 

 not "breed contempt" as familiarity so often does, but in- 

 stilled in me a tremendous interest in these great reptiles 

 that has remained alive through all my long life, and now 

 as I near its close I will try to record some of the things 

 I have learned concerning their life's history during more 

 than three score years of living near to and observing them. 



