January, 1919 
FOREST 
A N D 
STREAM 
39 
it all. Only when you retrieve next day, 
one out of every half dozen, do you real- 
ize what a real old he ’gator can be. I 
wanted to swim in the cool water during 
the hot hours of the day. A header from 
the trestle seemed just about right. After 
seeing the eloquent smile of a dead ’gator, 
I was curiously glad I had resisted my 
temptation for a bath. 
Still we did find places where we would 
see and retrieve. In the shallows or in 
the irrigation ditches stretching across 
swamp or prairie. Here a big pink dia- 
mond, apparently the size of a duck egg, 
shines out in the beam. I tried to follow 
one up close to see how near I could get. 
But Mr. ’Gator is by no means asleep. 
Sometimes we could get within a few 
feet, usually not nearer in the open than 
twenty feet. The least noise, and the 
red diamond simply disappears. No 
sound or ripple or splash, the ’gator 
just ducks under what bit is out. For if 
you will remember, his frog eyes pro- 
trude, the tip of his nose also, and per- 
haps a little bit of his head. But even 
of a huge ’gator fioating so, you see no 
more than you could cover altogether 
with your two hands. It is at the pink 
diamond you shoot. And here in the 
ditches small ’gators, four, five to 
seven feet long, were rather common, and 
small ’gator steak tastes like fish, a mix- 
ture of halibut and scallops. As a food 
article ’gator is fish, and not half bad at 
that. As a game bird, he is a pink dia- 
mpnd shining with mysterious light in a 
magic beam that cuts fairy swathes of 
light in a semi-tropic swamp of wonder- 
ful beauty. As a tourist’s sight, he is a 
log lying in the mud and sunlight. But 
if you ever chance to get him on a fishing 
line, as one of our crowd did, then he is 
the most interesting cuss you ever han- 
dled in a small tippy boat. 
A ll things considered — shining by 
night is a fairy experience, not so 
much, in fact, not at all, for the 
dead bag, but for the mystery and loveli- 
ness of the night and forest and stream. 
Many such days and nights we had 
around the camp. Vividly as I sit think- 
ing, the scenes come before me. Yet 
when on the last day I came out on a 
hand car, in a twenty-mile race w'ith our 
first rainstorm since the freeze-out, it 
seemed again a dream somehow come 
true. And when after two nights in the 
sleeper, I dropped off at the home place 
and waded knee deep in snow, I remem- 
bered the sendoff and smiled. For we 
started out in a snoring Winter gale, and 
came back in one. But between those 
two storms lay an enchanted month 
among the palms and orange groves, with 
the whirr of quail wings, the song of 
mocking birds, the “quit, quit” of turkeys, 
the bellow of ’gators, and the spitting fire 
from the ’coon’s eyes. And as I sit with 
old Lem dreaming beside me while I 
write this — I register a determination 
that come what may, I must have another 
month some time among the palm and 
orange groves ofHvild Florida. 
Send us accounts of your hunting and 
fishing experiences. We can use them. 
Our Lettters, Questions and Answers 
pages are open to all. 
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