had he known that the fierce-looking “dragons” were rather harmless to 
man. 
Since Bartram’s time, American alligators have been wantonly hunted 
and exterminated. From 1880 to 1894, more than two million were killed 
in Florida alone for their hides. Today they are protected by law, because 
they eat harmful insects and muskrats which undermine the Mississippi 
levees. 
The use of alligator hide became fashionable in 1855, and during 
the Civil War it was used extensively for shoes. By 1890 hides were still 
numerous enough to be bought at ten dollars a hundred. But the result 
of “fashion” was the destruction of millions of alligators during the nine¬ 
teenth century. 
Alligators are hunted by digging down into their underground refuges 
and prodding their stodgy bulk with a hooked pole. The creature seizes the 
hook, whereupon it is dragged to the surface and dispatched with a rifle shot. 
Bull’s-eye lanterns are used for hunting after dark. 
Contrary to common belief, “alligator farms” do not breed and rear 
alligators. The “farmers” merely collect many wild-bred young, and ex¬ 
hibit these along with crusty old-timers, Indian curios and other features 
of interest to tourists. 
They have such sideshow features as the alligator “born with only 
two legs” or “half a tail,” and appear blissfully ignorant that generally 
the loss of an alligator’s limbs results from the fights which take place 
between the males. The farms sometimes sponsor “wrestling matches” be¬ 
tween an alligator and a man in which the poor, unoffending beast is 
mauled and pushed around by the zealous wrestler, who invariably emerges 
victorious. The farms sell baby ’gators to zoos and to tourists who want 
unique souvenirs of a southern trip. 
Early Spanish explorers in Florida believed alligators to be giant 
lizards. The name alligator is probably derived from el lagarto , the Spanish 
for lizard. 
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