THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 61 



out, but it was so large that I took the barrel off my gun 

 and measured it with the gun barrel which was thirty inches 

 in length, marking with my knife by a cut on the back every 

 point where the end of the gun barrel stopped. After meas- 

 uring the alligator three times in order to prove the previous 

 measures, I found the length to be nineteen feet, two inches. 

 This is the largest alligator I have ever known of being ac- 

 tually measured. This alligator must have been very old 

 and had probably left his den in the Summer and was un- 

 able to get back to it, and would probably have died from 

 exposure that Winter. His teeth were worn down almost 

 to the jaw bone, and the stumps very badly discolored. An- 

 other large alligator caught at Avery Island measuring sev- 

 enteen feet, three inches was brought to my uncle, John 

 Avery, alive in 1886. My uncle built a crate for this alliga- 

 tor and sent it North by boat, alive, directed to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, as the authorities of that institution had 

 requested some member of my family to secure for them a 

 very large alligator. This alligator was put on deck of one 

 of the Morgan line steamers going to Philadelphia. During 

 the trip up, there was considerable painting being done on 

 the ship, and one of the sailors poured part of a can of 

 green paint over the alligator's back, rubbing it in with his 

 brush. The alligator died and was thrown overboard be- 

 fore reaching its destination. 



The last very large alligator I have record of was killed 

 on Marsh Island, by Max Touchet in March, 1916. Max 

 who had been supervising game-warden for Marsh Island 

 for several years, told me of having found the den of an 

 alligator a considerable distance back in the marsh between 

 Bayou Chin and Bayou Mechow. He had seen this alli- 

 gator a number of times as it basked in the sun on the bank 

 near its den, and thought it was at least eighteen feet in 

 length. I told him to catch the alligator and if it was 

 seventeen feet long I would give him two hundred dollars 

 for it, alive and in good condition. At the end of the trap- 



LlflRARY OP 

 RICHARD Q. MILLER 



