A PATRIARCHAL AND MUCHRESPECTED ALLIGATOR.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1171, 2 August 1893, Page 4

A PATRIARCHAL AND MUCHRESPECTED ALLIGATOR.

In the bayou flowing through tho large eugar plantation of Gabriel Montaigne, lying seven or eight miles South of Thibodeaux, La , there was recently killed, Bays the Philadelphia Times, an alligator known to be something over 1 20 years old. In 1773 Mr Montaigne's father's grandfather, immigrating to this country from France, purchased this tract of land from its original Spanish owner, and in an attempt to clear the bayou of the ferocious and aggressive alligators, which filled it to the number of thousands, succeeded in killing many of them, and among them the mother of several young onea, three of which he killed al3o, but the fourth got away, leaving five or six inches of his tail behind him. This one was afterwards seen from time to time, and always recognised by the missing portion of his anatomy. He grew to be something of a pet with succeeding generations, but they thought it safest to keep him at a distance, despite his friendly advances. It has been a favourite task with the younger Montaignea to go out after each meal with tidbits for old Shorty, as he wag called, because of his deformity. There was much grief therefore a day or two ago when a visitor from the east, returning from a day's shooting along the bayou' a banks, came across an enormous 'gator stretched across his path, and firing oa it, buried the contents of his guu in its head. Most of the shot was ineffectual, because of the scaly armour of the reptile, but several penetrated the eyes, the vulnerable points, sought the brain and killed the animal. The visitor, who had been some yards iu advance of his host, was just congratulating himself on his prowess in slaying so ferociouß-looking a creature, when Mr Montaigne, coming up, showed by his consternation that the victory had been at the cost of a loss to the entire family. Tbe assassin of old Shorty was conscience-stricken. The dead al'igator wa.3 buried on the banks of the bayou amid the lamentations of the younger members of the Montaigne family. This age of 120 years is not unparalleled with these animals, many being said to attain the age of 200, though this is difficult of proving, except in cases where the creature is marked in some such way as old Shorty was.