ALLIGATOR HUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1924, Page 9

ALLIGATOR HUNTS

In the country round the Gulf of Carpentaria, alligator shooting is quite a favourite pastime with the station people. In the swamps and creeks which fringe the gulf these huge, ungainly creatures abound, and the blacks and whites, while fond of the sport which they afford, have a wholesome respect for their great strength', especially in the region of the jaws, and become very adept in dodging them in the vicious rushes which they make when wounded and at bay. Mr. W. B. Curr, of Inkerman Station, Ivonnanton, gives a graphic account of such an encounter. In a letter to his brother he says:—"l got two alligators m a most unusual way. The first, a 16----footer, was stranded in about a foot of water, and as I had no firearms, and did not want to lose him, I got him with a pick. Unfortunately, I was unable to drive it through his skull, and had to swing up alongside him to get a shoulder shot. He could bite through a 4in hardwood stick each time I put it m his mouth, and could lift a fairsized nigger high enough with his tail to form a new sign in the zodiac. We wore him down at last, and he measured 16 feet. Two of us could not turn him over, and I can turn over any bullock single handed. The second one was the chap in a pool at the station, and when the water got low we could locate him by the bubbles, but he could not rise. When we put a few spears into him he burrowed into the soft mud and stopped there. We then went in with a rope and put it on him in exactly the same way as one would headrope a calf in a mob, but it was creeping, and dangerous, as he could bite like fury. However, we eventually landed him in triumph, and dispatched him. He was only about 9ft, but a good fighter, and full of vim and snap. •. . '