Feb. 25, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
JAMAICA ALLIGATORS. 
The log in the boarding house fireplace fiared 
tip, then died down, leaving only a faint red 
flicker among the coals. A cat that had been 
dozing in the warmth uncurled itself and with 
drew further into the darkness. Its eyes 
glowed green and phosphorescent. 
\\ ell, now, remarked the man from the 
tropics smiling whimsically, “do you know 
what that reminds me of? I never see a cat J s 
' v ' t * 10lU thinking of alligators.” 
Why- he was asked. “A homely old tabby 
in a New 1 ork parlor doesn’t bear much re¬ 
semblance to an alligator.” 
“You wouldn’t put it that way if you’d ever 
beeen in a West Indian swamp at night with 
scores of alligators round you. Their eyes 
shine exactly like a cat’s. Just call up the pic¬ 
ture to your mind—twenty or more pairs of 
round green globes staring at you out of the 
darkness and all advertising the proximity of 
jaws armed with two inch spikes for teeth. 
L gh. I can actually smell the musky alligator 
odor when a cat looks at me like that. 
“I here are numerous ways of going after this 
sort of game, but the hunting party in search 
of real sport will plan a ■ night expedition. 
About seven miles from Kingston, Jamaica, 
there is a swamp choked with mangroves, reeds 
and wild water hyacinths. A sluggish river 
provides a means of penetrating it, and it is 
probable that more alligators are shot in this 
locality than anywhere else in the world. 
“I recall organizing an expedition for the 
benefit of five Americans. The party numbered 
twelve in all. Three boats were secured and 
two white men assigned to each boat together 
with two negro oarsmen. The weapons were 
twelve-bore W inchesters. Each sportsman was 
provided with a bullseye lantern. 
“At the last moment one of the negroes 
dragged a yellow mongrel cur on board. ° My 
young friend from New York opened his eyes 
and started to quiz me. 
“‘What is he. a setter?’ he asked. 
Bait, I told him; and as though catching 
on to my meaning the cur yelped lamentably. 
After a laborious row we reached a spot 
where the mangroves hung down over the 
water, forming a partly covered lane between 
the banks and their drooping boughs. There 
was no sign of life, except the hoarse booming 
of a bullfrog. 
“Suddenly the yellow cur in the bottom of 
the boat began to whimper. The New Yorker 
turned his lantern upon it and we saw that the 
dogs hair was standing straight on end. It 
sniffed anxiously, its limbs shook and presently 
it threw its nose into the air and broke into 
a prolonged howl. 
“The negroes understood the signal and all 
three boats were at once brought to a stop, 
there was a swishing sound among the man¬ 
grove roots and a strong musky smell reached 
our nostrils. The dog howled in a new access 
of terror. 
“When the eye became accustomed to the 
gloom the banks were seen to be dotted with 
globes of phosphorescent fire. Set in pairs 
about three inches apart they wavered against 
the impenerable darkness behind. The lure of 
the dog had drawn the alligators. 
“It was difficult to miss, and nearly every 
shot we fired was accurately placed. The sport 
however, was over in less than ten minutes! 
1 he stricken alligators thrashed furiously on 
the banks, and the survivors plunged into the 
nv j r s curr ied back to the swamp. A second 
and third v.olley were sent among them and 
when the concerted light of the lanterns was 
turned first on one bank and then on the other 
it was found that seven saurians had been killed. 
J hat particular stretch of the river having been 
exhausted, we rowed some two miles further 
up^arid repeated the performance. 
the dog proved to be a never failing lure 
f lou see there is no meat that an alligator pre¬ 
fers to dog meat, and there is no terror like 
the terror a dog entertains for his natural 
gether lhe tW ° things work beautifully to- 
“The dog perceives the presence of alligators J 
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long before a human being could, and he in 
his turn draws them to him as a magnet draws 
steel. No experienced portsman starts on such 
an expedition without the right kind of living 
bait, though he will not use a valuable dog for 
the purpose, as the animal occasionally breaks 
loose and jumps into the river in an insane 
attempt to escape. 
“In the early hours of the morning we re¬ 
turned to Kingston. We had killed in all 
twelve alligators, and the following day sent 
the negroes back to skin the bodies. Each 
alligator hide is worth about seven dollars un¬ 
dressed, and the sport has therefore its pro¬ 
fitable side. —The Sun. 
CAPTURED AN ALBATROSS. 
Capt James Jarvis, of the bark Low Hill, 
reached New York the other day after a cruise 
around the world, says the New York Fishing 
Gazette. He brought an albatross, which was 
caught in the vicinity of Cape Horn. During 
the process of capturing the bird a thoughtless 
sailor struck at it and might have killed it had 
not the captain intercepted the blow. He was 
familiar ^with “The Rime of the Ancient 
Mariner,” and was determined that no ill luck 
should follow his ship. 
The capture of the albatross was followed by 
a big surprise. The bird was stretched on deck, 
and when the second mate turned up the wings 
he saw, written in indelible ink on the white 
feathers, “I am queen of the air.” 
Capt. Jarvis read the words with amazement, 
for he remembered on a previous cruise, some¬ 
where in 1905 or 1906 , when he rounded the 
Horn, a young albatross had been caught, ancl 
the words ‘‘I am queen of the air” were written 
under the wings by himself. 
“When I saw the writing on that bird's wing," 
he said, I can t tell you how I felt. It was a 
big surprise and a happy one. If that gook of 
a sailor had killed it when it was coming aboard 
I hate to say what would have happened to him. 
But we re lucky. It’s been a lucky voyage all 
the time we were away from New York.” 
It s an old superstition among seafaring men 
that to kill an albatross brings the worst kind 
of luck. 
285 
Big 
No other part of the world rivals the East 
Coast of Africa in its abundance and variety 
of game, or in its extent of unsettled country. 
The Palatial Steamers of the 
Union-Castle Line 
Enable the Tourist to 
Circumnavigate Africa 
i/! ... . _ in Either Direction 
Via West Coast — weekly sailings of Royal Mail 
for Madeira. Cape Town. 
Port Elizabeth East London, Natal. Intermediate 
ships leaveLondon and Southampton weekly for Cape 
nlSvmkr be $ b ’ J? a , st London, calling fort- 
nightly at Tenenffe, Las Palmas and Mossel Bay and 
monthly at Ascension and St. Helena. Fortnightly ser- 
to C BeirI lnTMaurUi,'s° UrenCO Mar<JUes) ’ and 
Via East Coast — Sailings from London and South- 
ampton every four weeks, via Suez Canal, calling at 
Marseilles, Naples Port Said, Port Sudan. Aden, Mom¬ 
basa Zanzibar Mozambique. Chinde, Beira, Delagoa 
Bay (Lourenco Marques) and Durban. 
THE DELIGHTS OF AN AFRICAN TOUR 
are hundred-fold. The Victoria Falls , that greatest of 
all cataracts, with a sheer drop of 420 feet, may be 
reached by either West Coast or East Coast service by 
rail from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London. 
Natal or Beira. 
The Biblical Ruins of Sheba— supposed to be the ruins 
oi bolomon s temple,are only a few miles from Victoria. 
Intending Tourists and llnnters are invited to address, 
for foil information, llteratnre, and through bookings 
^"rncietoft:" Union-Castle Line 
281 Fifth Avenue—N EW YORK— 8-10 BridgeStreet 
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