*5° 



RECREA TION. 



the sun from blistering the hides, 

 and when the trees are not convenient, 

 the tent is used. Only the sides and 

 stomach of the hide is cut off, the heavy 

 hard and broken scales of the back ren- 

 dering that part useless. 



When the teeth are wanted, the heads 

 are buried until they rot, then taken up 

 and despoiled of their contents. The 

 teeth were formerly worth from two to 

 ten dollars a pound, being largely used 

 for making watch guards, scarf pins, 

 and other ornaments, but there is no de- 

 mand worth mentioning for them now. 

 The carcasses were sometimes tried for 

 their oil, that being an excellent lubri- 

 cator, good for cuts and bruises, and 

 possessing fair illuminating power. Some 

 hunters claim that the tongue and tail 

 of a young 'gator make excellent eat- 

 ing, but that is evidently a matter of 

 taste, as the tongue seems to be com- 

 posed of musk-perfumed fat, which is 

 as oily as the liver of a shark, and the 

 tail looks like a slice of fat veal. 



The hides are prepared for market 

 by merely stretching and salting them ; 

 they are then rolled into bundles and 

 sold as *' green salted skins " They sell 

 by sizes, but none under three feet in 

 length is taken. 



Hides ofextraordinary size bring good 

 prices, but these are now rare, owing to 

 the warfare waged on saurians from 

 Pensacola to Miami Falls for the last 

 twenty years or more. 



Even crocodile pelts have now com- 

 paratively little value, and the animal 

 itself is seldom sought for either 

 museums or "shows," owing to its small 

 value. 



I have seen $40 paid for a live ten- 

 foot crocodile, yet I was offered one not 

 long ago for $3.50. This is a sure in- 

 dication that such reptiles aie out of 

 fashion in the Northern States, and that 

 the drummer or lady with the 'gator 

 skin bag is no longer considered 

 ultra fashionable. It is estimated that 

 100,000 'gator skins were shipped North 

 from Florida during 1889-90, but it 

 would, perhaps, be safe to say that not 

 one-twentieth of that number is now ex- 

 ported, and most of them belong to the 

 Seminoles of the Everglades. A genuine 

 old Cracker hunter is met occasionally 

 now, but he does not seem the same in- 

 dividual he was four or five years ago, 

 when ordinary luck gave him five or 

 six hundred dollars for his summer's 

 work, and made him feel like a nabob 

 when he reached town. 



The saurian hunter will soon be extinct 

 in Florida, and with him will disappear a 

 picturesque class of nomads which 

 seemed to have acquired some of the 

 traits peculiar to their haunts and 

 prey, being silent, cautious, patient, 

 unimpressible, and utterly matter of 

 fact. It would be difficult to find a 

 more picturesque class of men than 

 these 'gator hunting crackers. 









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