78 THE ALLIGATOR'S LIFE HISTORY 



catch it by the nose and if it was not too large that is, not 

 more than nine or ten feet long would slide it over the 

 side into the boat. As soon as the alligator was gotten into 

 the boat, a cut was made across the back immediately be- 

 hind the hind legs and through the vertebrae with a sharp 

 hand axe or hatchet. This cut was made in order to keep 

 the alligator from thrashing about, as they often do for 

 some time after being shot through the brain; for a large al- 

 ligator in its dying struggles is not a very safe companion 

 in a small boat. If the alligator was too large to take into 

 the boat, it was pulled on the bank, a small rope tied to a 

 front leg, and to the grass or bushes on the bank, and it 

 was left to be retrieved in the morning. After the boat 

 was loaded, it was propelled by paddle or oars back to the 

 hunters' camp which might be on the bank of the stream or 

 in a larger boat. 



In the morning the alligators were skinned by making a 

 cut from the underside of the chin along both sides of the 

 lower jaw, then around the head below the eyes to the 

 heavy bony plates of the neck, then down each side follow- 

 ing the edge of the bone plates of the back to where these 

 plates end a short distance back of the hind legs. The cut 

 then extended along the upper edge of the tail to its end. 

 The cut having been completed, if the alligator was a large 

 one, the two men immediately started the work of skin- 

 ning, and as they always kept a whetstone suspended from 

 their belts with which they kept the skinning knives sharp, 

 this work progressed very rapidly. When the skin was 

 taken off, it was at once thickly covered with salt on the 

 flesh side, and then rolled up, beginning from the head to 

 the tail, the sides being turned in as the rolling proceeded. 

 These skins were then packed in the hole of the boat or in 

 a special part of the camp. When a sufficient number 

 had been taken they were disposed of at one of the towns 

 on the larger streams making from the Gulf to interior 

 Louisiana. The principal towns in which the alligator skins 



